Overview

AI audio generators can create high-quality voice-overs, background music, and sound effects quickly and consistently, offering new possibilities for campaign audio content. While these tools can enhance and streamline audio production, their viability for your own use in political campaigns will depend on several factors:

• Your organization’s comfort level with AI-generated content
• Alignment with existing workflows and campaign strategies
• Ethical considerations, especially regarding voice actor and musician labor
• Potential for innovation in content creation and message optimization

Additionally, these tools can offer significant cost savings and efficiency gains, particularly for campaigns with limited resources, allowing for rapid content iteration and enabling the creation of audio assets that might otherwise be cost-prohibitive.

Even if AI-generated audio doesn’t immediately fit your current processes, it presents significant opportunities for experimentation. Campaigns can explore new ways to scale content creation, optimize messaging, and push creative boundaries, potentially gaining a competitive edge.

This guide covers key use cases and limitations of top AI audio generators, focusing on ElevenLabs for voice generation and Suno for music creation. We’ll explore how these tools work and how they might transform your approach to campaign audio content.

Check out our guide for using ElevenLabs for generating voiceovers 

Check out our guide for using Suno for generating music

Use Cases

Voice-Over and Speech Generation

• Best tool: ElevenLabs
• Use cases:
  • Create voice-overs for social content
  • Generate audio for hotlines or robocalls 
  • Produce multilingual versions of audio content
  • Create podcasts or audio versions of written content like blog posts and newsletters
• How it helps: ElevenLabs can quickly produce high-quality voice-overs in various languages and styles, allowing campaigns to create more audio content and reach diverse audiences more effectively. This can be particularly useful for campaigns that previously lacked the resources for extensive voice-over work.

Music and Background Track Creation

• Best tool: Suno
• Use cases:
  • Create custom background music for videos
  • Generate campaign jingles or theme songs
  • Produce audio beds for podcasts or radio ads
• How it helps: Suno can rapidly generate original music in various styles and both with and without audio tracks. This can streamline the process of finding background music for campaign videos and social content and opens up possibilities that may have been previously out of reach due to practical constraints, such as creating unique theme music for different types of campaign content.

Audio Content Iteration and Testing

• Best tools: ElevenLabs and Suno
• Use cases:
  • Quickly produce multiple versions of audio for A/B testing
  • Iterate on voice tone, pacing, or musical style based on feedback
• How it helps: The speed of AI generation allows for rapid iteration and testing of audio content, helping campaigns optimize their messaging and audio branding more efficiently. This can be particularly valuable for time-sensitive messaging or when trying to fine-tune audio content for different audience segments. ElevenLabs’ extensive voice library allows you to quickly create voiceover tracks in different genders and demographics with a variety of qualities (e.g. “gravitas,” “positive,” etc.) for testing in various applications. 

Tools

ElevenLabs

• Best for: Voice generation and text-to-speech applications
• Key Features:
  • High-quality text-to-speech conversion: This feature allows you to input written text and receive a natural-sounding voice reading that text. It’s useful for creating voice-overs for videos or generating audio versions of written content, though there are often slight AI tells in the pacing and pronunciation. 
  • Speech-to-speech transformation: This feature allows you to take existing audio of someone speaking and transform it into a different voice while maintaining the original intonation and emotion. In our testing, this produced stronger results than text-to-speech alone.
  • Voice cloning capabilities: This advanced feature allows you to create a digital copy of a specific voice. By providing samples of someone’s voice, ElevenLabs can generate new audio content that sounds like that person. This could be used to create consistent voice-overs using a candidate’s voice, but it raises important ethical considerations.
  • Multiple language support: ElevenLabs can generate speech in various languages, which is valuable for reaching diverse audiences or creating multilingual content. 
• Limitations:
  • Some AI “tells” in text-to-speech output: While the quality is high, very discerning listeners might notice slight irregularities that indicate the audio is AI-generated.
  • Restrictions on certain types of political content: ElevenLabs prohibits content related to voter suppression or candidate misrepresentation. These restrictions shouldn’t interfere with campaigners’ workflows, but they’re something to be mindful of. 

Suno

• Best for: Music and background track generation
• Key Features:
  • Rapid generation in various genres and styles: Suno can quickly create music in a wide range of styles, from pop to classical to electronic. This versatility allows for the creation of diverse audio content to suit different campaign needs.
  • Can create songs with or without lyrics: You have the option to generate instrumental tracks or full songs with AI-generated lyrics and vocals.
  • Ability to use custom lyrics: If you have specific messages you want in a song, you can input your own lyrics and Suno will generate music to accompany them. Suno can also generate its own lyrics, but we found greater success in using a chat tool like ChatGPT to generate the lyrics first. 
• Limitations:
  • Some generated songs can sound generic or cheesy: While Suno produces high-quality output, not every generation will be suitable for professional use. You may need to generate multiple options to find one that fits your needs.
  • Lower quality with non-English vocals: The tool’s performance may vary when generating songs with lyrics in languages other than English.
  • Requires specific vocabulary to generate certain styles accurately: To get the best results, you need to be familiar with musical terminology and genre-specific language.

Key Considerations for Political Campaigns

Before integrating AI-generated audio into your work, consider these important factors:

Limitations and Risks:

• Inconsistent Quality: While generally high-quality, results can vary. Allow time for experimentation and iteration.
• Limited Control: To maximize control over nuances like emotion and emphasis, we recommend using speech-to-speech audio over text-to-speech. However, with any application, there may be limitations to what you can control. 
• Potential for Bias: AI models may perpetuate societal biases present in their training data, particularly in voice selection and music styles. Be vigilant in reviewing outputs for unintended biases. Include diverse stakeholders in reviewing outputs and deciding when AI will be used.
• Copyright and Disclaimers: The legal status of AI-generated audio is still evolving. There exists a patchwork of state laws governing the use of AI-generated multimedia in political content, and the FEC has prohibited the use of AI-generated audio in unsolicited robocalls. At the bare minimum, we recommend including a disclaimer reading, “This (image/audio/video) has been generated by or manipulated with AI” and avoiding any AI-generated voice impersonating real people (candidates, voters, etc.). These laws and guidelines are constantly shifting, so consult a lawyer before using AI-generated audio for any paid campaign efforts.
• Authenticity Concerns: Using AI-generated voices, especially if mimicking real people, raises ethical questions and may impact campaign authenticity. Be transparent about AI usage when representing a real voter or candidate, and be sure to do so only with express permission. 

Best Practices for Political Use:

1. 1. Start with Low-Stakes Applications: Begin using AI-generated audio in contexts like internal demos or social media content before moving to more prominent uses.
   2. Maintain Transparency: Be open about the use of AI in your audio production process. Consider adding disclaimers for AI-generated voice content if it mimics a real person.
   3. Keep Human Review: Always have team members review and approve AI-generated content. This is crucial for maintaining message accuracy, tonal consistency, and mitigating bias. 
   4. Use as Augmentation: Leverage AI-generated audio as a starting point or complement to human-created content rather than a full replacement. This approach respects the value of human creativity while benefiting from AI efficiency. 
   5. Respect Artist Labor: Position AI tools as aids to human creativity, not replacements for voice actors or musicians. While AI can help augment the capacity of resource-strapped campaigns, it shouldn’t be used as a replacement for humans. Consider involving human audio professionals in the refinement of AI-generated concepts when possible; this is particularly important in the audio field, where voice actors and musicians have specific concerns about AI replacing their work.

• Addressing Copyright Concerns:

1. • For voice generation: Ensure you have the right to use any voice you’re cloning.
   • For music generation: While AI-generated music is generally considered original, be cautious of outputs that might closely resemble existing works.
2. Leverage for Rapid Production: Use AI’s speed to your advantage, particularly for creating multiple versions of audio content for testing or responding quickly to current events.
3. Explore Diverse Voices and Styles: Use AI to quickly explore a broader range of vocal styles and musical genres, potentially uncovering unique audio aesthetics for your campaign.

Conclusion

AI-generated audio offers exciting possibilities for political campaigns, particularly in rapid production of voice-overs, multilingual content, and custom music. It has the potential to make certain types of audio content more accessible to campaigns with limited resources. However, its use should be carefully considered in light of your organization’s goals, ethical standards, and existing workflows.

As you integrate these tools into your process, prioritize transparency, respect for voice actors and musicians, and a clear understanding of where AI-generated audio is most appropriate. Remember that while AI can significantly enhance your audio production process, the unique insights and nuanced understanding that human creators bring to political messaging remain invaluable.

Follow Higher Ground Labs’ blog or subscribe to AI newsletters like The Rundown to stay informed about the evolving capabilities and limitations of AI audio generation. Make sure to continually reassess how these tools can best serve your campaign’s goals and values.

Resources

Practical guides for content creators:

• Using ElevenLabs for Campaign Audio
• Using Suno for Campaign Audio