Text-to-speech from media content item snippets

1. A system providing text-to-speech functionality, comprising:

a forced alignment data store having stored thereon forced alignment data for tracks;

a combining engine configured to:

obtain input text;

portion the input text into a first text set, a second text set, and a third text set;

identify a first track having first track lyrics that include the first text set;

identify, using the forced alignment data, a first audio location of the first track corresponding to the first text set;

create a first audio snippet containing the first audio location;

identify a second track based on the second track having second track lyrics containing the third text set;

create a second audio snippet from the second track based on the third text set;

using a speech synthesizer, create a synthesized utterance based on the second text set;

combine the first audio snippet, the second audio snippet, and the synthesized utterance to form combined audio; and

provide an audio output that includes the combined audio.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the forced alignment data describes alignment between audio data of the tracks and lyrics data of the tracks.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the forced alignment data, for each of the tracks, describes lyrics data and time data of where lyrics occur in the audio data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the second track is further based on audio characteristics of the first track and the second track.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein identifying the second track includes:

selecting the second track based on similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track.

6. Then system of claim 5 , wherein the similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track is determined based on a distance between the first track and the second track in a vector space.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a forced alignment engine for aligning input track audio and input track lyrics.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the forced alignment engine is configured to find a Viterbi path through the input track lyrics and the input track audio under an acoustic model.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the forced alignment engine is configured to align the input track lyrics and input track audio on a line-by-line basis.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the forced alignment engine is configured to:

receive a third track having track metadata;

receive third track lyrics associated with the third track;

select an acoustic model from an acoustic model data store based on the track metadata;

using the acoustic model, generate third-track forced alignment data that aligns audio data of the third track and the third track lyrics; and

add the third-track forced alignment data to the forced alignment data store.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the combining engine is further configured to:

determine a quality described in the input text,

wherein identifying the first track is based at least in part on the quality.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the quality is a music genre or music artist.

13. A method comprising:

obtaining input text;

portioning the input text into a first text set, a second text set, and a third text set;

determine a quality described in the first text set,

identifying a first track based on:

the first track having first track lyrics that include the first text set; and

the first track having the quality;

identifying, using forced alignment data, a first audio location of the first track corresponding to the first text set;

creating a first audio snippet containing the first audio location;

identifying a second track based on the second track having second track lyrics containing the third text set based on similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track;

creating a second audio snippet from the second track based on the second text set;

using a speech synthesizer, creating a synthesized utterance based on the second text set;

combining the first audio snippet, the second audio snippet, and the synthesized utterance to form combined audio; and

providing an audio output that includes the combined audio.

14. A system providing text-to-speech functionality, comprising:

a forced alignment engine for aligning input track audio and input track lyrics, wherein the forced alignment engine is configured to:

receive a third track having track metadata;

receive third track lyrics associated with the third track;

select an acoustic model from an acoustic model data store based on the track metadata;

using the acoustic model, generate third-track forced alignment data that aligns audio data of the third track and the third track lyrics; and

add the third-track forced alignment data to a forced alignment data store;

the forced alignment data store having stored thereon forced alignment data for tracks;

a combining engine configured to:

obtain input text;

portion the input text into a first text set and a second text set;

identify a first track having first track lyrics that include the first text set;

identify, using the forced alignment data, a first audio location of the first track corresponding to the first text set;

create a first audio snippet containing the first audio location;

using a speech synthesizer, create a synthesized utterance based on the second text set;

combine the first audio snippet and the synthesized utterance to form combined audio; and

provide an audio output that includes the combined audio.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the forced alignment data describes alignment between audio data of the tracks and lyrics data of the tracks.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the forced alignment data, for each of the tracks, describes lyrics data and time data of where lyrics occur in the audio data.

17. The system of claim 14 ,

wherein the input text has a third text set; and

wherein the combining engine is further configured to:

identify a second track based on the second track having second track lyrics containing the third text set; and

create a second audio snippet from the second track based on the third text set,

wherein the combined audio further includes the second audio snippet.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the identifying the second track is further based on audio characteristics of the first track and the second track.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein identifying the second track includes:

selecting the second track based on similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track.

20. Then system of claim 19 , wherein the similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track is determined based on a distance between the first track and the second track in a vector space.

21. The system of claim 14 , wherein the forced alignment engine is configured to find a Viterbi path through the input track lyrics and the input track audio under an acoustic model.

22. The system of claim 14 , wherein the forced alignment engine is configured to align the input track lyrics and input track audio on a line-by-line basis.

23. The system of claim 14 , wherein the combining engine is further configured to:

determine a quality described in the input text,

wherein identifying the first track is based at least in part on the quality.

24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the quality is a music genre or music artist.

25. The method of claim 13 , wherein the forced alignment data describes alignment between audio data and lyrics data of tracks.

26. The method of claim 25 , wherein the forced alignment data, for each of the tracks, describes lyrics data and time data of where lyrics occur in the audio data.

27. The method of claim 13 , wherein the identifying the second track is further based on audio characteristics of the first track and the second track.

28. The method of claim 27 , wherein identifying the second track includes:

selecting the second track based on similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track.

29. Then method of claim 28 , wherein the similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track is determined based on a distance between the first track and the second track in a vector space.

30. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

using a forced alignment engine to find a Viterbi path through input track lyrics and input track audio under an acoustic model.

31. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

using a forced alignment engine to align input track lyrics and input track audio on a line-by-line basis.

32. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

with a forced alignment engine:

receiving a third track having track metadata;

receiving third track lyrics associated with the third track;

selecting an acoustic model from an acoustic model data store based on the track metadata;

with the acoustic model, generating third-track forced alignment data that aligns audio data of the third track and the third track lyrics; and

adding the third-track forced alignment data to a forced alignment data store.

33. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:

determining a quality described in the input text,

wherein identifying the first track is based at least in part on the quality.

34. The method of claim 33 , wherein the quality is a music genre or music artist.

35. A method comprising:

with a forced alignment engine for aligning input track audio and input track lyrics:

receiving a third track having track metadata;

receiving third track lyrics associated with the third track;

selecting an acoustic model from an acoustic model data store based on the track metadata;

using the acoustic model, generating third-track forced alignment data that aligns audio data of the third track and the third track lyrics; and

adding the third-track forced alignment data to the forced alignment data store obtaining input text;

portioning the input text into a first text set a second text set;

determine a quality described in the first text set,

identifying a first track based on:

the first track having first track lyrics that include the first text set; and

the first track having the quality;

identifying, using forced alignment data, a first audio location of the first track corresponding to the first text set;

creating a first audio snippet containing the first audio location;

using a speech synthesizer, creating a synthesized utterance based on the second text set;

combining the first audio snippet and the synthesized utterance to form combined audio; and

providing an audio output that includes the combined audio.

36. The method of claim 35 , wherein the forced alignment data describes alignment between audio data and lyrics data of tracks.

37. The method of claim 36 , wherein the forced alignment data, for each of the tracks, describes lyrics data and time data of where lyrics occur in the audio data.

38. The method of 35 , further comprising:

identifying a second track based on audio characteristics of the first track and the second track,

wherein the combined audio includes a second audio snipped from the second track.

39. The method of claim 38 , wherein identifying the second track includes:

selecting the second track based on similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track.

40. Then method of claim 39 , wherein the similarities in musical style between the first track and the second track is determined based on a distance between the first track and the second track in a vector space.

41. The method of claim 35 , further comprising:

with the forced alignment engine, finding a Viterbi path through input track lyrics and input track audio under an acoustic model.

42. The method of claim 35 , further comprising:

with the forced alignment engine, aligning input track lyrics and input track audio on a line-by-line basis.

43. The method of claim 35 , further comprising:

determining a quality described in the input text,

wherein identifying the first track is based at least in part on the quality.

44. The method of claim 43 , wherein the quality is a music genre or music artist.