Read It

Read It solves a narrow but common problem: you subscribe to good newsletters and save interesting articles, but you never actually get around to reading them. Instead of adding another reading app, Read It converts that text into audio and drops it into the podcast app you already use every day.

Setup is two addresses. When you sign up you get a personal podcast feed URL, which you paste into any podcast player, plus a personal email address. Forward a newsletter — or any email — to that address and the service converts the text to speech and adds it as a new episode in your feed. For web reading, a browser bookmarklet converts any page or article into audio with a single click, so you can queue it up and listen later.

Pricing is deliberately metered rather than subscription-based. New accounts get enough free credits to try the service without entering billing details, and beyond that it is pay as you go: you are charged by volume of text converted, with no recurring subscription to manage. Read It is a small independent project and the amount of text you convert is the only thing that affects what you pay.