Hearald Publisher gives every article on your site a \"Listen\" button. When you publish, the plugin sends the article's text to the Hearald audio service, which narrates it with a natural neural voice (Kokoro-82M) and returns an MP3. The MP3 is saved into your own Media Library, and a clean, lightweight player appears above (or below) your article \u2014 readers press play, and your writing meets them while they commute, cook, or walk.<\/p>\n\n
Your audio is yours.<\/strong> Every narration is a normal MP3 in your Media Library. It is served by your site, it keeps playing if you change plans or stop using Hearald, and uninstalling the plugin leaves it where it is.<\/p>\n\n What it does<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Plans count audio generations per license key per calendar month: publishing a new article, or regenerating one whose words or voice changed, uses one. Regenerating audio that already matches the article costs nothing. See https:\/\/forgehouse.app\/hearald\/publisher\/<\/p>\n\n What it costs your readers: nothing.<\/strong> The player is static assets served by your site and one MP3 file. No reader accounts, no tracking scripts, no cookies.<\/p>\n\n Listen analytics are opt-in and aggregate-only.<\/strong> When enabled, your site counts plays, completions and seconds listened per article \u2014 three numbers. No IPs, no user agents, no identifiers, no per-reader anything, ever.<\/p>\n\n This plugin relies on the Hearald audio service to synthesize speech. It does not work without an account and connection to a service endpoint.<\/p>\n\n What is sent, and when:<\/strong> When you (or your auto-generate setting) request audio for a post, the plugin transmits to the Hearald service (https:\/\/audio.forgehouse.app, unless you set another endpoint under Advanced): the post's published text content (title, headings, paragraphs, lists, quotes), the post ID, the chosen voice, a salted non-reversible hash identifying your site, and your license key. Testing the connection sends only your license key. Nothing is transmitted until you enter a license key and request generation. Draft, pending and private posts are never sent \u2014 generation is refused for anything unpublished. The plugin then downloads the finished MP3 from the service into your Media Library.<\/p>\n\n What is not sent:<\/strong> reader data of any kind, user accounts, emails, comments, credentials, or content of posts you did not generate audio for.<\/p>\n\n What the service stores:<\/strong> the job record (site hash, post ID, post title, voice, content hash, status), kept for 30 days, and the generated MP3 only until your site has copied it \u2014 it is deleted as soon as your site collects it, and after 7 days at most. The article text is held only while it waits in the queue and is being narrated, and is discarded when generation finishes. Your license key is stored only as a one-way hash, alongside your plan and monthly article count. Uninstalling the plugin removes all plugin settings and post data from WordPress; the MP3s in your Media Library stay unless you delete them.<\/p>\n\n License checks (Gumroad):<\/strong> Plans are sold through Gumroad. To confirm which plan a license key belongs to, the Hearald service sends the key and the Hearald product ID to Gumroad's license verification API. No article content or site data is sent to Gumroad. Gumroad terms: https:\/\/gumroad.com\/terms \u2014 privacy: https:\/\/gumroad.com\/privacy<\/p>\n\n Service provider:<\/strong> Hearald \u2014 https:\/\/forgehouse.app\/hearald\/ \u2014 terms and privacy: https:\/\/forgehouse.app\/hearald\/privacy\/<\/p>\n\n The optional \"Powered by Hearald\" credit on the player is off by default and only appears if you enable it.<\/p>\n\n\n Everything already narrated stays in your Media Library and keeps playing \u2014 it is your file, served by your site. Your key simply moves to the Free plan's 5 articles a month.<\/p><\/dd>\n In your Media Library, attached to their article, named like No. Synthesis happens on the Hearald service. Your site sends text, polls in the background via WP-Cron, and serves a small CSS\/JS player only on pages that show one.<\/p><\/dd>\n The plugin hashes what would actually be spoken. Fixing a typo in a shortcode attribute or re-saving changes nothing; changing the words marks the audio \"needs updating\" so you decide \u2014 or regenerates automatically if you enabled that.<\/p><\/dd>\n Free is 5 articles a month, Publisher is 50 and Publisher Pro is 500. Hearald \u2192 Settings<\/strong> and the Hearald dashboard both show your plan and how many you have used this month, so the limit is never a surprise. Counts reset on the 1st (UTC), and regenerating audio that already matches an article is free.<\/p><\/dd>\n\n
[hearald_player]<\/code> shortcode for manual placement<\/li>\n[hearald_mark]<\/code>, hide a phrase in their first letters, and let readers claim a code with [hearald_hidden_message]<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
External service disclosure<\/h3>\n\n
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What happens if I cancel or downgrade?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
Where are the audio files stored?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
hearald-your-post-slug-1a2b3c4d.mp3<\/code>. Regenerating an article replaces its old Hearald MP3; your own media is never touched.<\/p><\/dd>\nDoes this bundle an AI model or slow my site down?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
What happens when I edit an article?<\/h3><\/dt>\n
How many articles do I get, and how do I know what's left?<\/h3><\/dt>\n