🎙️ AI News Briefing Generator

Transform your favorite RSS feeds into personalized, professional audio news briefings with background music and customizable voices.

📸 Screenshots

Main Interface

Clean, dark-themed interface for configuring news briefing

Generated Briefing

Audio player and transcript view after successful generation

✨ Features

• RSS Feed Integration: Support for multiple RSS feeds from popular news sources
• Professional Voice Generation: Powered by Murf AI with multiple voice options
• Audio Enhancement: Automatic background music mixing for professional sound
• Customizable Briefings: Adjust article count, voice selection, and audio format
• Dark Theme UI: Modern, responsive web interface
• Real-time Processing: Live feedback during briefing generation
• Multiple Formats: Export as MP3, WAV, or FLAC
• Auto-save: Remembers your preferred RSS feeds

🎯 Use Cases

• Daily News Consumption: Convert your morning news reading into audio briefings
• Commute Companion: Listen to personalized news during travel
• Accessibility: Audio-first news consumption for visually impaired users
• Productivity: Multitask while staying informed
• Content Creation: Generate news summaries for podcasts or broadcasts

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• FFmpeg (for audio processing)
• Murf AI API key (Get one here)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/WizOctavius/news-brief.git
   cd news-brief

2. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Setup FFmpeg

   Windows:

   • Download FFmpeg from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html
   • Extract to C:\ffmpeg\
   • Or ensure ffmpeg.exe is in your PATH

   macOS:

   brew install ffmpeg

   Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install ffmpeg

4. Configure Murf API

   • Open main.py
   • Replace PASTE_YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with your actual Murf API key:

   MURF_API_KEY = "your_actual_murf_api_key_here"

5. Add Background Music (Optional)

   • Place your background music file as assets/corporate-technology-196202.mp3
   • Or update the BACKGROUND_MUSIC_PATH variable in main.py

6. Run the application

   python main.py

7. Access the web interface

   • Open your browser to http://localhost:8000
   • API documentation available at http://localhost:8000/docs

🛠️ Project Structure

ai-news-briefing-generator/
├── main.py                 # FastAPI backend server
├── static/
│   ├── index.html         # Web interface
│   ├── script.js          # Frontend JavaScript
│   └── generated_audio/   # Generated audio files (auto-created)
├── assets/
│   └── corporate-technology-196202.mp3  # Background music
├── requirements.txt       # Python dependencies
└── README.md             # This file

🎛️ Configuration Options

Voice Selection

• Natalie (US Female) - Default
• Wayne (US Male)
• Hazel (UK Female)
• Nolan (UK Male)

Audio Formats

• MP3 - Recommended for most use cases
• WAV - High quality, larger file size
• FLAC - Lossless compression

Articles per Feed

• Adjustable from 1-5 articles per RSS feed
• Total briefing limited to 20 articles maximum

📰 Supported RSS Feeds

The application works with any valid RSS feed. Popular examples include:

• Reuters: https://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/topNews
• New York Times: https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml
• TechCrunch: https://feeds.feedburner.com/TechCrunch
• BBC News: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml
• Reuters Business: https://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/businessNews

🔧 API Reference

Generate Briefing

POST /generate-briefing

Request Body:

{
  "feeds": [
    "https://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/topNews",
    "https://rss.nytimes.com/services/xml/rss/nyt/World.xml"
  ],
  "voice_id": "en-US-natalie",
  "audio_format": "MP3",
  "max_articles_per_feed": 3
}

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "audio_url": "/static/generated_audio/briefing_abc123.mp3",
  "briefing_text": "Good morning from Durgapur...",
  "audio_length_seconds": 180.5,
  "characters_used": 1250,
  "characters_remaining": 8750,
  "articles_count": 6,
  "sources": ["Reuters", "New York Times"]
}

Health Check

GET /health

Returns system status including API configuration and FFmpeg availability.

🎵 Background Music

The application automatically mixes speech with background music for a professional podcast-like experience. The background music is:

• Automatically looped to match speech duration
• Volume-adjusted to not interfere with speech clarity
• Mixed using FFmpeg for optimal audio quality

If no background music is provided, the application gracefully falls back to speech-only audio.

🔒 Environment Variables

MURF_API_KEY=your_murf_api_key_here

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"FFmpeg not found" warning

• Ensure FFmpeg is properly installed and accessible
• Check that FFmpeg executable is in your system PATH
• On Windows, verify the installation path matches the expected locations

"Murf API key is not configured"

• Verify your API key is correctly set in main.py
• Ensure the key is valid and has sufficient credits
• Check Murf API documentation for authentication requirements

"Could not connect to the server"

• Ensure the FastAPI server is running on port 8000
• Check for any firewall or antivirus blocking the connection
• Verify Python dependencies are properly installed

No articles found

• Verify RSS feed URLs are valid and accessible
• Check that feeds contain recent articles
• Some feeds may require specific headers or user agents

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📋 Roadmap

• Support for podcast RSS feeds
• Multiple language support
• Scheduled briefing generation
• Email delivery integration
• Custom intro/outro messages
• Advanced audio effects and processing
• Mobile app companion

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Murf AI for text-to-speech capabilities
• FastAPI for the robust web framework
• Feedparser for RSS feed parsing
• Pydub for audio processing

📞 Support

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

1. Check the 🐛 Troubleshooting section
2. Review the API documentation at http://localhost:8000/docs
3. Open an issue on GitHub with detailed error information

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Made with ❤️ for news enthusiasts who prefer audio content.