Juliana Rueda Gutierrez, a veteran of the Spanish-language audiobook industry, has launched EARS (Entertainment Audio Recording System), a new cloud-based software platform aimed at streamlining audiobook production. The platform integrates various aspects of audiobook production, from project management to recording and quality control, into a single interface.
“I found I needed software that would allow me to work with many people around the world simultaneously, allowing them both autonomy and the opportunity for me, as the producer, to see what they were doing," said Gutierrez said, who serves as CEO of the company. For her, that meant ensuring that EARS catered to the needs of professionals across different roles within the production process, from project managers to narrators to editors.
“Depending on the role you play in your unit or in your company team, you will be able to see everything and everyone, or just be siloed to projects you are assigned to," Gutierrez explained. "Normally we use almost 15 applications to work on an audiobook. Now, with everything in one place, I estimate we are able to produce audiobooks and get them to market twice as fast, while reducing costs by 40%."
Originally from Colombia, Gutierrez started her career in audio publishing in Barcelona in 2012: “I was one of the pioneers,” she said. Over the course of a decade, she added, her production company, Miutbooks, has produced more than 10,000 hours of audio, encompassing between 1,500 to 2,000 books.
Gutierrez's production portfolio includes audiobooks for such major Spanish-language publishers as Anagrama, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, and Planeta, among others. “I have produced almost every book by Gabriel García Márquez, as well as numerous bestsellers, including Isabel Allende, Ken Follett, and Stephen King," she said, adding that another favorite in her portfolio was Haruki Murakami. “I've only been committed to producing quality titles.”
Recognizing the potential broader impact of the software she used at Miutbooks, Gutierrez decided to develop it into a Software as a Service (SaaS), and EARS can now be licensed for use by other audiobook producers. Among its advocates is industry consultant Javier Celaya, who offered a keynote at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair Audiobook Forum, and will represent the company at the Guadalajara International Book Fair this December.
One of the key features EARS offers is its user-friendly recording studio interface. “We wanted to make something very easy for any type of user,” Gutierrez said. Narrators, she explained, can record audio simply by clicking, as well as access character information and pronunciation guides within the platform.
Currently, EARS is being used in trial runs by several publishing houses, including Penguin Random House in Spain. It's available in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, and Portuguese, although Gutierrez notes that “many people opt to use the English-language interface.”
As the audiobook industry continues to grow globally, Gutierrez sees EARS as a tool that will allow audio publishers to maintain quality while meeting the demands for increased production. "My fear in this race,” she said, “is that if we don't have a catalog that is engaging,the probability is that first-time listeners will drop out.”
