Pocket Producer: A Field Guide to ArticleCast

Reported & fact‑checked by Editorial Team · September 19, 2025 Editor: Staff · Fact‑checker: Staff · Copydesk: Staff

ArticleCast turns long reads into cozy, host-led mini-pods—right on your phone. Below is a 10-minute, start-to-finish workflow (plus pro tips) to get polished results fast.

Why ArticleCast? (Use-Cases)

• Hands-free reading for commutes, chores, workouts.
• Blog-to-audio so readers can listen on-page.
• Internal briefings your team can absorb on the move.
• Accessibility for readers who prefer audio.

Quick Start (3 Steps)

1. Share any web page or upload a PDF.
2. Pick a voice and enable intro/outro (optional ambient).
3. Convert → listen offline or push to your queue.

Recommended Settings

• Voice: choose an expressive but neutral voice; avoid overly “announcer-y” voices for dense material.
• Music: subtle bed at -18 dB; skip it entirely for technical docs.
• Speed: 0.95–1.05x for most content; faster for newsy items, slower for academic pieces.
• Sections: if the source is huge, split it by H2s to preserve pacing.

Example Workflows

Blog Publisher

• Export your post to Markdown, convert in ArticleCast, then embed the player.
• Add a 30–60 sec cold open (what the reader will learn) before the main content.

Student / Researcher

• Batch your weekly readings every Sunday.
• Use titles that match course units so they’re easy to find later.

Team Briefings

• Combine 2–3 related links; add a 15-second summary at the top that says “What’s new” and “What to do.”

Quality Checklist (Hit Publish with Confidence)

• Does the cold open clearly promise value?
• Do subheads create natural pauses?
• Is background audio subtle?
• Are brand names and jargon pronounced correctly? (If not, tweak spelling/phonetics.)
• Did you skim the transcript for misreads?

Troubleshooting

• Choppy rhythm? Add short paragraphs and bullet lists.
• Odd pronunciations? Use phonetic hints (e.g., “Lis-ner” for Listnr) or a custom dictionary if available.
• Level jumps? Normalize to around -16 LUFS for spoken word.

SEO Tips for ArticleCast Posts

• Use a title that includes “convert article to audio” or “ArticleCast”.
• Embed the audio at the top; add transcript below the fold for indexing.
• Include FAQs and internal links to your other audio workflows.

FAQ

Can I customize hosts?
Some versions support assigning named hosts and “expertise”—great for brand consistency.

Does it support PDFs?
Yes. Choose clean PDFs for best results; scanned images need OCR first.

Where does the audio live?
You can save files locally, add to your queue, or embed on your site.

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Try next: Compare Wondercraft vs. Listnr for full production → Wondercraft vs. Listnr.

Sources & Further Reading

• ArticleCast
• Google’s overview of NotebookLM1 Audio Overviews
• Wondercraft²’s Article-to-Podcast generator
• Listnr
• Speechify
• Audioread³ explainer on AIToolhouse: https://blog.aitoolhouse.com/listen-to-articles-and-pdf-with-audioread/
• Directory entry: https://dang.ai/tool/articles-to-audio-ai-tool-audioread

Fact‑Check & Sources

• ArticleCast (iPhone + Chrome extension) — see ⁴.
• NotebookLM Audio Overviews (feature + language expansion) — see ¹ and ⁵.
• Wondercraft Article‑to‑Podcast + studio workflow — see ².
• Listnr (1,000+ voices; 140+ languages) — see ⁶.
• Audioread (private RSS feed) — see ³.
• Speechify (natural TTS, multi‑language) — see ⁷.

Footnotes

1. Google announced NotebookLM's Audio Overview feature on Sept 11, 2024. Source: https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-audio-overviews/ ↩ ↩²

2. Wondercraft provides an Article‑to‑Podcast generator and studio features. Source: https://www.wondercraft.ai/tools/article-to-podcast-generator ↩ ↩²

3. Audioread generates a private podcast RSS feed for listening in any podcast app. Source: https://audioread.com/ ↩ ↩²

4. ArticleCast advertises iPhone availability and a Chrome extension for converting web articles to natural audio. Source: https://www.articlecast.ai/ ↩

5. In 2025, Google expanded NotebookLM’s Audio/Video Overviews and languages. Sources: https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2025/04/language-expansion-audio-overviews-notebooklm.html and https://blog.google/technology/google-labs/notebook-lm-audio-video-overviews-more-languages-longer-content/ ↩

6. Listnr promotes 1000+ voices in 140+ languages. Source: https://listnr.ai/ ↩

7. Speechify markets natural‑sounding TTS with many languages/voices. Examples: https://speechify.com/ and https://speechify.com/text-to-speech-online/ ↩