ElevenLabs

Our verdict on ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs is the voice tool we trust when a project needs a natural-sounding narrator. Sam called it "one of our favorite tools" in November 2025, and Jordan is, in Sam's words, a huge fan. Our hands-on use is narrower than that enthusiasm suggests, though: one narrated video project and some music API experiments, so this review is short.

What we built with ElevenLabs

• A narrated slide-deck video (March 2026): Jordan took a 65-page slide deck and turned it into a narrated video, using Remotion for the visuals and ElevenLabs for text-to-speech. He described it in Episode 36, at 11:43. We did not show the finished video or say how long it took.
• Music API tests (November 2025): before building the AI retail DJ, Jordan said he had tried the ElevenLabs music APIs alongside other tools. His go-to for music is Suno.

Recently, I did this video where I took like a 65 page slide deck and turned it into a video using a Remotion and 11 Labs for text to speech, and just kind of made it into like a narrated kind of video.

— Jordan Metzner, Episode 36

How we use ElevenLabs

1. Start from content you already have. Jordan's narrated video began as an existing 65-page slide deck, not a new script.
2. Generate the voiceover with ElevenLabs text-to-speech. The narration carries the video; the slides become the visuals.
3. Assemble it as code in Remotion. Jordan calls Remotion a JavaScript video library. With AI writing the code, putting audio and animated slides together is no longer cumbersome. Sam used the same library for the candidate highlight reel builder.
4. Time video to audio files. For his product trailers, Jordan feeds Remotion the WAV file of a music track so the visuals hit on the beat.
5. In a voice agent, use it as the voice layer. Karim Malhas of Breeze explained a voice agent as ears, brains and voice. In his live build he picked Deepgram for the ears and showed ElevenLabs among the voice options.

What our guests say

Karim Malhas, founder and CEO of Breeze, built a multi-agent voice agent live in Episode 42. Breeze is provider agnostic, so you can plug in any voice you want, but ElevenLabs was the one he singled out.

So eleven Labs is, like, one of the best, very fast.

— Karim Malhas, Episode 42

Closing that episode, Jordan put ElevenLabs among the foundation labs at the edge of where business is happening today: AI voice.

The Iconic Voice Marketplace

In Episode 21 (at 27:31) we covered ElevenLabs' Iconic Voice Marketplace, which lets brands license AI-generated voices of famous people. Jordan noted the voices people most want were missing from the list, and that many on it, like Mark Twain, Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart, are licensed through their estates. He saw it as a way for talent to make money from AI rather than lose out to it.

Standard AI CEO Angie Westbrook raised the harder question: once someone consents to their likeness being used, how does that use stay constrained? She suspected that is why so many of the voices belong to historical figures.

Where ElevenLabs falls short

• Thin first-hand testing. We have not compared ElevenLabs voices against other text-to-speech models on the show, and we did not cover pricing or plans.
• Music is not its strongest card for us. Jordan tried the music APIs, but when he built AI tracks for the retail DJ, Suno is the tool he talked about loving.
• Consent and control. For licensed celebrity voices, Angie's point stands: how a likeness stays limited to what the person agreed to is still an open question.

Episodes featuring ElevenLabs

• Episode 21: Jordan's music API tests and the Iconic Voice Marketplace, with Angie Westbrook.
• Episode 36: narrating a 65-page slide deck with ElevenLabs and Remotion.
• Episode 42: Karim Malhas picks voices for a live Breeze agent build.

FAQ

How do you use ElevenLabs?

Jordan's main use on the show was text-to-speech narration: he turned a 65-page slide deck into a narrated video by pairing ElevenLabs voices with Remotion, the code-based video library.

Is ElevenLabs good for voice agents?

Karim Malhas, founder of the voice AI platform Breeze, called ElevenLabs one of the best voice options and very fast when he picked voices for a live agent build in Episode 42.

Can ElevenLabs make music?

Jordan said in November 2025 that he had tried the ElevenLabs music APIs, along with Udio and others, but Suno is the music tool he says he loves to use.

What is the ElevenLabs Iconic Voice Marketplace?

As Sam described it in Episode 21, it lets brands license AI voices of famous people, many of them historical figures licensed through their estates. Jordan saw it as a new revenue stream for talent; we did not use it.