Audio file quality and accuracy assessment

1. A method performed by a computing system, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of audio files from a plurality of audio file creators, wherein an individual audio file of the plurality of audio files comprises an audible version of a corresponding text-based news story;

storing the plurality of received audio files in a tangible, non-transitory computer readable media;

determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file, wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises determining whether an average volume of the individual audio file is (i) less than or equal to a maximum average volume threshold and (ii) greater than or equal to a minimum average volume threshold;

in response to determining that the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution, approving the individual audio file for distribution;

in response to determining that the individual audio file is not acceptable for distribution, determining whether the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution can be remediated;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution can be remediated, remediating the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution cannot be remediated, determining whether the individual file that is not acceptable for distribution is not so flawed as to require rejection and should be reviewed by a human;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution but not so flawed as to require rejection should be reviewed by a human, designating the individual audio file for review by a human;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution and cannot be remediated should not be reviewed by a human, rejecting the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution and cannot be remediated; and

wherein the computing system is configured to perform at least all three actions of rejecting individual audio files, remediating individual audio files, and designating individual audio files for review by a human.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises:

generating a text file from the individual audio file; for each word in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story,

determining whether the word matches its corresponding word in the generated text file; and determining whether a number of words in the individual audio file matching corresponding words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story is greater than or equal to a word match threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises:

determining a number of words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story;

determining a duration of the individual audio file;

estimating a number of words in the individual audio file based on the determined duration and an estimated words-per-minute rate of the individual audio file; and

determining whether a difference between the determined number of words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story and the estimated number of words in the individual audio file is less than or equal to a word count threshold.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises:

determining a number of sentences in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story;

estimating a number of sentences in the individual audio file based at least in part on an analysis of an audio waveform corresponding to the individual audio file; and

determining whether a difference between the determined number of sentences in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story and the estimated number of sentences in the individual audio file is less than or equal to a sentence count threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises:

estimating a duration of the audio file based on a number of words in the audio file's corresponding text-based news story and a target audio pace;

determining an actual duration of the audio file; and

determining whether a difference between the estimated duration and the actual duration is less than or equal to a duration threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises:

determining a number of words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story;

determining a duration of the individual audio file;

calculating a words-per-minute audio pace of the individual audio file by dividing the determined number of words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story by the determined duration of the individual audio file; and

determining whether the calculated words-per-minute audio pace is both (i) less than or equal to a maximum audio pace threshold and (ii) greater than or equal to a minimum audio pace threshold.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises:

determining whether background noise in the individual audio file is less than or equal to a background noise threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: in response to determining whether background noise in the individual audio file is not less than or equal to a background noise threshold, generating a noise-reduced version of the audio file by applying one or more noise reduction algorithms to the audio file; and

determining whether background noise in the noise-reduced version of the audio file is less than or equal to a background noise threshold.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the audio file has a dynamic range, and wherein the method further comprises:

generating a compressed audio file by compressing the dynamic range of the individual audio file in response to determining that the average volume of the individual audio file is neither (i) less than or equal to a maximum average volume threshold nor (ii) greater than or equal to a minimum average volume threshold; and

determining whether an average volume of the dynamic range of the compressed audio file is (i) less than or equal to a maximum average volume threshold and (ii) greater than or equal to a minimum average volume threshold.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises:

determining whether a peak volume of the individual audio file is less than or equal to a peak volume threshold.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

in response to determining that the peak volume of the individual audio file is less than or equal to the peak volume threshold, generating a processed version of the individual audio file by applying at least one of a limiter function or a dynamic range compression function to the individual audio file; and

determining whether a peak volume of the processed version of the audio file is less than or equal to the peak volume threshold.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein remediating the individual audio file comprises one or more of (i) applying a noise reduction algorithm to the individual audio file, (ii) applying a dynamic range compression algorithm to the individual audio file, and/or (iii) applying a limiting function to the individual audio file.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein rejecting the individual audio file comprises transmitting an indication to an audio file creator associated with the individual audio file, the indication comprising one or more of: (i) a notification that the individual audio file has been rejected, (ii) at least one reason for rejecting the audio file, and (iii) a request that the audio file creator resend a corrected version of the individual audio file.

14. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable memory having instructions stored therein, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a plurality of audio files from a plurality of audio file creators, wherein an individual audio file of the plurality of audio files comprises an audible version of a corresponding text-based news story;

storing the plurality of received audio files in a tangible, non-transitory computer readable media;

analyzing one or more accuracy metrics or one or more quality metrics of an individual audio file against one or more corresponding accuracy thresholds, and based on the analysis of the one or more accuracy or quality metrics, determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file, wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises determining whether an average volume of the individual audio file is (i) less than or equal to a maximum average volume threshold and (ii) greater than or equal to a minimum average volume threshold;

in response to determining that the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution, approving the individual audio file for distribution; and

in response to determining that the individual audio file is not acceptable for distribution, determining whether the individual audio file can be remediated;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution can be remediated, remediating the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution cannot be remediated, determining whether the individual file that is not acceptable for distribution is not so flawed as to require rejection should be reviewed by a human;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution but not so flawed as to require rejection should be reviewed by a human, designating the individual audio file for review by a human;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution and cannot be remediated should not be reviewed by a human, rejecting the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution and cannot be remediated; and

wherein the system is configured to perform at least all three actions of rejecting individual audio files, remediating individual audio files, and designating individual audio files for review by a human.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more accuracy metrics comprise one or more of:

a word match metric based on a number of words in a speech-to-text version of the individual audio file that match corresponding words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story;

a word count metric based on a difference between (i) a number of words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story and (ii) an estimated number of words in the individual audio file;

a sentence count metric based on a difference between (i) a number of sentences in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story and (ii) an estimated number of sentences in the individual audio file;

a duration metric based on a difference between (i) an actual duration of the individual audio file and (ii) an estimated duration of the audio file, wherein the estimated duration is based on a number of words in the audio file's corresponding text-based news story and a target audio pace; and

an audio pace metric based on a difference between (i) a target audio pace and (ii) a calculated audio pace for the individual audio file, wherein the calculated audio pace is based on the number of words in the individual audio file's corresponding text-based news story and the actual duration of the individual audio file.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the one of more quality measures comprise one or more of:

a background noise metric based whether background noise measured in the individual audio file exceeds a background noise threshold; and

a peak volume metric based on whether a peak volume of the individual audio file is less than or equal to a peak volume threshold.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises:

applying a noise reduction algorithm to the individual audio file in response to determining that the individual audio file exceeds the background noise threshold;

applying a dynamic range compression algorithm to the individual audio file in response to determining that the individual audio file is neither (a) less than or equal to the maximum average volume threshold nor (b) greater than or equal to the minimum average volume threshold; and

applying a limiting function to the individual audio file in response to determining that the individual audio file exceeds the peak volume threshold.

18. A tangible, non-transitory computer readable media comprising instructions executable by one or more processors, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform functions comprising:

receiving a plurality of audio files from a plurality of audio file creators, wherein each audio file comprises an audible version of a corresponding text-based news story;

storing the plurality of received audio files in a tangible, non-transitory computer readable media;

determining whether an individual audio file in the plurality of audio files is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file, wherein determining whether the individual audio file is acceptable for distribution to a plurality of subscribers for playback based on a computer analysis of the individual audio file comprises determining whether an average volume of the individual audio file is (i) less than or equal to a maximum average volume threshold and (ii) greater than or equal to a minimum average volume threshold;

in response to determining that the individual audio file of the plurality of audio files is acceptable for distribution, approving the individual audio file for distribution;

in response to determining that the individual audio file is not acceptable for distribution, determining whether the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution can be remediated;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution can be remediated, remediating the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution cannot be remediated, determining whether the individual file that is not acceptable for distribution is not so flawed as to require rejection and should be reviewed by a human;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution but also not so flawed as to require rejection should be reviewed by a human, designating the individual audio file for review by a human;

in response to determining that the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution and cannot be remediated should not be reviewed by a human, rejecting the individual audio file that is not acceptable for distribution and cannot be remediated; and

wherein the tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media comprises instructions executable by the one or more processors for performing at least all three actions of rejecting individual audio files, remediating individual audio files, and designating individual audio files for review by a human.