diff --git a/packages/api/src/textToSpeech.d.ts b/packages/api/src/textToSpeech.d.ts
index 194db1fbd..5e438e05e 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/textToSpeech.d.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/textToSpeech.d.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 declare module '@omnivore/text-to-speech-handler' {
-  function htmlToSsml(html: string, options: SSMLOptions): SSMLItem[]
+  function htmlToSsml(html: string, options: SSMLOptions): string[]
 
   interface SSMLOptions {
     primaryVoice: string
@@ -8,11 +8,5 @@ declare module '@omnivore/text-to-speech-handler' {
     language: string
   }
 
-  interface SSMLItem {
-    open: string
-    close: string
-    textItems: string[]
-  }
-
   export { htmlToSsml }
 }
diff --git a/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts b/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts
index ed125114d..e65755cfc 100644
--- a/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts
+++ b/packages/text-to-speech/src/htmlToSsml.ts
@@ -179,7 +179,10 @@ export const ssmlItemText = (item: SSMLItem): string => {
   return [item.open, ...item.textItems, item.close].join('')
 }
 
-export const htmlToSsml = (html: string, options: SSMLOptions): SSMLItem[] => {
+export const htmlToSsmlItems = (
+  html: string,
+  options: SSMLOptions
+): SSMLItem[] => {
   console.log('creating ssml with options', options)
 
   const dom = parseHTML(html)
@@ -218,3 +221,7 @@ export const htmlToSsml = (html: string, options: SSMLOptions): SSMLItem[] => {
 
   return items
 }
+
+export const htmlToSsml = (html: string, options: SSMLOptions): string[] => {
+  return htmlToSsmlItems(html, options).map(ssmlItemText)
+}
diff --git a/packages/text-to-speech/src/index.ts b/packages/text-to-speech/src/index.ts
index 55a9eabc6..5006a2666 100644
--- a/packages/text-to-speech/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/text-to-speech/src/index.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ import * as dotenv from 'dotenv' // see https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv#how-d
 import { synthesizeTextToSpeech, TextToSpeechInput } from './textToSpeech'
 import { File, Storage } from '@google-cloud/storage'
 import { PassThrough } from 'stream'
-import { htmlToSsml, SSMLItem } from './htmlToSsml'
+import { htmlToSsml } from './htmlToSsml'
 
 dotenv.config()
 Sentry.GCPFunction.init({
@@ -141,7 +141,10 @@ export const textToSpeechStreamingHandler = Sentry.GCPFunction.wrapHttpFunction(
 
     try {
       // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unsafe-member-access
-      const ssmlItems = req.body.ssmlItems as SSMLItem[]
+      const ssmlItems = req.body.ssmlItems as string[]
+      if (!ssmlItems || ssmlItems.length === 0) {
+        return res.status(200).send({ errorCode: 'INVALID_DATA' })
+      }
       const audioStream = new PassThrough()
       const input: TextToSpeechInput = {
         text: '',
diff --git a/packages/text-to-speech/src/textToSpeech.ts b/packages/text-to-speech/src/textToSpeech.ts
index ed7799e2b..0fdfc43ed 100644
--- a/packages/text-to-speech/src/textToSpeech.ts
+++ b/packages/text-to-speech/src/textToSpeech.ts
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import {
   SpeechSynthesisResult,
   SpeechSynthesizer,
 } from 'microsoft-cognitiveservices-speech-sdk'
-import { htmlToSsml, SSMLItem, ssmlItemText } from './htmlToSsml'
+import { htmlToSsmlItems, ssmlItemText } from './htmlToSsml'
 
 export interface TextToSpeechInput {
   id?: string
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ export interface TextToSpeechInput {
   complimentaryVoice?: string
   bucket?: string
   audioStream: NodeJS.ReadWriteStream
-  ssmlItems?: SSMLItem[]
+  ssmlItems?: string[]
 }
 
 export interface TextToSpeechOutput {
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ export const synthesizeTextToSpeech = async (
   if (!process.env.AZURE_SPEECH_KEY || !process.env.AZURE_SPEECH_REGION) {
     throw new Error('Azure Speech Key or Region not set')
   }
+  const textType = input.textType || 'html'
   const writeStream = input.audioStream
   const speechConfig = SpeechConfig.fromSubscription(
     process.env.AZURE_SPEECH_KEY,
@@ -131,24 +132,22 @@ export const synthesizeTextToSpeech = async (
   }
 
   try {
-    const ssmlItems =
-      input.textType === 'ssml'
-        ? input.ssmlItems
-        : htmlToSsml(input.text, {
-            primaryVoice: input.voice || 'en-US-JennyNeural',
-            secondaryVoice: input.complimentaryVoice || 'en-US-GuyNeural',
-            language: input.languageCode || 'en-US',
-            rate: '1',
-          })
-    if (!ssmlItems || ssmlItems.length === 0) {
-      throw new Error('No SSML items found')
-    }
-
-    for (const ssmlItem of Array.from(ssmlItems)) {
-      const ssml = ssmlItemText(ssmlItem)
-      console.debug('start synthesizing', ssml)
-      const result = await speakSsmlAsyncPromise(ssml)
-      timeOffset = timeOffset + result.audioDuration
+    if (textType === 'html') {
+      const ssmlItems = htmlToSsmlItems(input.text, {
+        primaryVoice: input.voice || 'en-US-JennyNeural',
+        secondaryVoice: input.complimentaryVoice || 'en-US-GuyNeural',
+        language: input.languageCode || 'en-US',
+        rate: '1',
+      })
+      for (const ssmlItem of ssmlItems) {
+        const ssml = ssmlItemText(ssmlItem)
+        const result = await speakSsmlAsyncPromise(ssml)
+        timeOffset = timeOffset + result.audioDuration
+      }
+    } else {
+      for (const ssmlItem of input.ssmlItems || []) {
+        await speakSsmlAsyncPromise(ssmlItem)
+      }
     }
   } catch (error) {
     console.error('synthesis error', error)
diff --git a/packages/text-to-speech/test/htmlToSsml.test.ts b/packages/text-to-speech/test/htmlToSsml.test.ts
index 46bd0243c..80fd3fbd3 100644
--- a/packages/text-to-speech/test/htmlToSsml.test.ts
+++ b/packages/text-to-speech/test/htmlToSsml.test.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 import 'mocha'
 import { expect } from 'chai'
-import { htmlToSsml } from '../src/htmlToSsml'
+import { htmlToSsmlItems } from '../src/htmlToSsml'
 
-describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
+describe('htmlToSsmlItems', () => {
   const TEST_OPTIONS = {
     primaryVoice: 'test-primary',
     secondaryVoice: 'test-secondary',
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
 
   describe('a simple html file', () => {
     xit('should convert Html to SSML', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
       <div id="readability-content">
         <div id="readability-page-1">
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
   })
   describe('a file with nested elements', () => {
     xit('should collapse spans into the parent paragraph', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
         <div id="readability-content">
           <div class="page" id="readability-page-1">
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
       )
     })
     xit('should extract child paragraphs to the top level', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
         <div id="readability-content">
           <div>
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
       )
     })
     xit('should hoist paragraphs in spans to the top level', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
         <div id="readability-content">
           <div>
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
       expect(text).to.equal(`TBD`.trim())
     })
     xit('should hoist lists to the top level', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
         <div id="readability-content">
           <div>
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
       expect(text).to.equal(`TBD`.trim())
     })
     xit('should hoist headers to the top level', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
         <div id="readability-content">
           <div>
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
       expect(text).to.equal(`TBD`.trim())
     })
     xit('should hoist blockquotes to the top level', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
         <div id="readability-content">
           <div>
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
   })
   describe('a file with blockquotes', () => {
     xit('should convert Html to SSML with complimentary voices', () => {
-      const ssml = htmlToSsml(
+      const ssml = htmlToSsmlItems(
         `
         <div id="readability-content">  
           <div class="page" id="readability-page-1">
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ describe('htmlToSsml', () => {
   //         continue
   //       }
   //       const html = fs.readFileSync(readablePath, { encoding: 'utf-8' })
-  //       const ssmlItems = htmlToSsml(html, TEST_OPTIONS)
+  //       const ssmlItems = htmlToSsmlItems(html, TEST_OPTIONS)
   //       console.log('SSML ITEMS', ssmlItems)
   //     }
   //   })