instaread

<p>Trusted by 200+ brands and creators, Instaread Audio Player converts your WordPress articles, blog posts, and pages into natural-sounding audio and embeds an audio player on your content. The plugin is provided at no cost to publishers; Instaread operates on an ad-supported model, where revenue is generated through optional audio advertising and shared with the publisher.</p>
<p>The plugin is intended for publishers who want to add an audio version of their text content to improve accessibility and offer an alternative way to consume articles.</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Automatic text-to-speech conversion for posts, pages, and custom post types</li>
<li>Embedded audio player with waveform visualizer</li>
<li>Color and style customization to match your site’s branding</li>
<li>Voice library with multiple natural-sounding voices; voice cloning available on request</li>
<li>Site-specific pronunciation dictionary for proper nouns and brand names</li>
<li>Analytics dashboard with listener metrics</li>
<li>Audio podcast feed generation for distribution to podcast platforms</li>
<li>Playlist support for serialized content</li>
<li>Subscribe-to-listen flow for paywalled content</li>
<li>Optional ad suppression for logged-in subscribers</li>
<li>Works with standard WordPress themes</li>
<li>Compatible with major page builders (Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, Gutenberg)</li>
<li>Mobile-responsive player layout</li>
<li>Asynchronous player loading — does not block page rendering</li>
</ul>
<h4>How It Works</h4>
<ol>
<li>Install and activate the Instaread Audio Player plugin</li>
<li>Connect your site through the onboarding wizard</li>
<li>Choose your voice, customize the player appearance, and add the required ads.txt lines</li>
<li>Submit your site for approval</li>
<li>Once approved, your articles are converted to audio and the player appears on every post</li>
</ol>
<h4>Who Is This For?</h4>
<ul>
<li>News publishers who want to offer an audio version of their articles</li>
<li>Bloggers who want to make content accessible to audio-first audiences</li>
<li>Content-heavy websites looking to add audio without a separate production pipeline</li>
<li>Magazine and media sites that want an audio version of their archive</li>
</ul>
<h4>Pricing and Monetization</h4>
<p>The plugin is provided at no cost to publishers. Instaread’s revenue comes from optional audio advertising played within the audio stream; publishers receive a share of that revenue.</p>
<h3>Configuration Guide</h3>
<h4>Admin Dashboard</h4>
<p>After activation, the <strong>Instaread</strong> menu appears in the WordPress admin sidebar. All settings are managed through a locally-rendered admin interface — no iframes, no external page loads in the admin.</p>
<h4>Step 1 — Register Your Site</h4>
<p>Fill in:<br />
* <strong>Website Name</strong> — your publication name<br />
* <strong>Homepage URL</strong> — your site’s root URL (e.g. https://example.com)<br />
* <strong>Email Address</strong> — for account notifications</p>
<h4>Step 2 — Choose a Voice</h4>
<ul>
<li>Browse the voice library and click the play button to preview any voice</li>
<li>Select one or more voices — the system will alternate between them</li>
<li>Browse the available voices and choose the ones that best fit your publication</li>
</ul>
<h4>Step 3 — Configure the Player</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Player Design</strong>: Choose from Acoustic Player (waveform visualizer), Compact Acoustic, or Compact</li>
<li><strong>Player Color</strong>: Set the primary accent color to match your branding</li>
<li><strong>Player Label</strong>: Defaults to “Listen to this article” — customize as needed</li>
<li><strong>Waveform Colors</strong>, <strong>Timestamps Color</strong>, and <strong>Advertisement Text</strong> are available depending on design</li>
<li>A live preview updates instantly as you change settings — no need to save first</li>
</ul>
<h4>Step 4 — Set Player Position</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Default Position</strong> (recommended): Player is injected above <code>.entry-content</code> automatically</li>
<li><strong>Custom Position</strong>: Enter a CSS selector (e.g. <code>.article-body</code>) and choose above or below</li>
</ul>
<h4>Step 5 — Submit for Approval</h4>
<p>Click <strong>Submit for Approval</strong>. You will be taken to a confirmation screen that shows:<br />
* Your submission status (pending <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> accepted)<br />
* The <strong>ads.txt content</strong> you must add to your domain</p>
<h4>Step 6 — Add ads.txt</h4>
<p>Instaread requires ads.txt entries to serve audio ads. Add the provided lines to your domain’s <code>/ads.txt</code> file. You can:<br />
* Edit the file manually at <code>https://yourdomain.com/ads.txt</code><br />
* Use the free <strong>Ads.txt Manager</strong> WordPress plugin (recommended)</p>
<p>The confirmation screen shows a live verification indicator — green when detected correctly.</p>
<h4>Step 7 — Approval and Go-Live</h4>
<p>Once Instaread verifies your ads.txt and approves your site, audio generation begins automatically. New posts are converted within minutes of publishing. Your full archive is also converted at no additional cost.</p>
<p>Approval typically happens within a few hours of submission. After approval, additional settings pages unlock in the admin sidebar:<br />
* <strong>Voice Selection</strong> — change or add voices<br />
* <strong>Audio Player</strong> — update player design and colors<br />
* <strong>Position</strong> — change player placement<br />
* <strong>Manage Posts</strong> — include/exclude posts by date or category<br />
* <strong>Pronunciation</strong> — add custom pronunciations for brand names or proper nouns<br />
* <strong>Ads</strong> — view and copy your ads.txt configuration<br />
* <strong>Analytics</strong> — view listener metrics (plays, duration, geography)</p>
<h3>External Services</h3>
<p>Instaread Audio Player connects to external services operated by Instaread (https://instaread.co).<br />
By installing this plugin, you agree to the Instaread Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.</p>
<p>This plugin connects to Instaread’s external audio service. Instaread’s hosted service performs article-to-audio processing, audio hosting, player delivery, ad serving, analytics, and revenue-share reporting. These functions are not performed locally by the WordPress plugin.</p>
<p>When enabled by the site administrator, the plugin may send article URLs, article text, site domain, and basic playback/ad event data to Instaread for the purpose of generating audio, serving the audio player, measuring usage, and supporting ad monetization.</p>
<p>Use of the Instaread service is subject to Instaread’s Terms of Use (https://instaread.co/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://instaread.co/privacy).</p>
<p>Instaread does not use your content to train AI models. You retain all intellectual property rights.</p>


Instaread Audio Player — Text-to-Speech & Article-to-Audio

Convert articles, blog posts, and pages into natural-sounding audio. Improves accessibility and supports optional audio advertising.

ResponsiveVoice

<p><a href="https://responsivevoice.org/wordpress-text-to-speech-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">ResponsiveVoice</a> is a HTML5-based Text-To-Speech library designed to add voice features to WordPress across all smartphone, tablet and desktop devices. It supports 51 languages through 168 voices and has no dependencies.</p>
<p>Languages include UK English, US English, Spanish, French, Deutsch, Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Romanian, Catalan, Australian, Finnish, Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Czech, Danish, Esperanto, Hatian Creole, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latin, Latvian, Macedonian, Moldavian, Montenegrin, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Spanish Latin American, Swahili, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese and Welsh.</p>
<h3>Support and Questions visit here first:</h3>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://responsivevoice.org/support" rel="nofollow ugc">Support</a></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<h3>Useful Links:</h3>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://responsivevoice.org/wordpress-text-to-speech-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">Live Demo</a></li>
<li><a href="https://responsivevoice.org/wordpress-text-to-speech-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">Homepage</a></li>
<li><a href="https://responsivevoice.org/wordpress-text-to-speech-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<h3>Features:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Listen to any post or page with the tap of a button</li>
<li>Shortcodes to place Listen button anywhere on the post or page</li>
<li>51 languages supported through 168 voices</li>
<li>Unlimited text to speech</li>
<li>Easy access to content for website users, tap to listen to your page or post read aloud</li>
<li>A more functional website for a range of users including visually impaired and the elderly</li>
<li>Web Accessibility Compliance Group 2.0, ADA and BS 8878:2010 features</li>
</ul>
<h3>Usage:</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>From version 1.6.6, we added API Key configuration to WordPress settings. To experience the complete range of voices,<br />
<a href="https://responsivevoice.org/register" rel="nofollow ugc">register free and get your API Key</a>. The plugin will still work without it, but<br />
you will be limited to available browser voices.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>It’s Easy – To have the Listen button appear put the following shortcode anywhere in the text of your page or post.<br />
[responsivevoice_button]</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>You can select a voice by using the “voice” parameter, and change the text that appears on the button with the “buttontext” parameter. The following shortcode will read in the US English Female voice, and the button will say “Play”.<br />
    [responsivevoice_button voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]<br />
A full list of ResponsiveVoice names is available at <a href="https://responsivevoice.org/text-to-speech-languages/" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a>. Default is UK English Female.</p>
<ul>
<li>Read a whole page, or just sections of text – If you don’t want the whole page or post to be read, just surround the salient text with<br />
[responsivevoice]Text you want ResponsiveVoice to read [/responsivevoice]<br />
This tag also supports the voice and buttontext parameters. Additionally, you can place the button after the text (it will be before by default) with the “buttonposition” tag, like so:<br />
[responsivevoice buttonposition=”after”]Text you want ResponsiveVoice to read [/responsivevoice]</li>
</ul>
<p>The shortcodes also allow other parameters. You can adjust the Voice’s pitch, volume and rate with<br />
    [responsivevoice_button rate=”1″ pitch=”1.2″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]</p>
<p>For more details, please see the <a href="https://responsivevoice.org/wordpress-text-to-speech-plugin/" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a></p>
<h4>Requirements</h4>
<p>There are no requirements, you do not need to install cURL.</p>


ResponsiveVoice Text To Speech

Not so much on LeapPad or iPhone/Safari. Support was prompt and courteous in responding to my query about this. May be a LeapPad issue rather than an issue with this plugin. For fun, have the Russian voices read the text "moose and squirrel"!

Works great on desktop

ResponsiveVoice the leading HTML5 text to speech synthesis solution, is now available for WordPress. Over 51 languages through 168 voices.

Instaread Audio Player — Text-to-Speech & Article-to-Audio vs ResponsiveVoice Text To Speech