Amazon Recruits Comedians, Engineers for Expanding Audio Service

Amazon.com Inc. is ramping up its investment in podcasts and other radio-style shows to expand the types of programming it offers via Audible, the audio book company it acquired in 2008.Audible has recruited well-known comedians, along with radio and podcast producers for the initiative, and job postings suggest a significant global push. Maria Bamford and Jonathan Katz are taping episodes of "Bedtime Stories," a show in which comedians rewrite fairy tales, according to their manager Bruce Smith.Entertainment plays a crucial role in Amazon's effort to push beyond its core business of selling books, laundry detergent and televisions online. The Seattle-based company's original films and TV shows have won critical acclaim and helped increase the appeal of its $99-a-year Prime service, which includes delivery discounts along with video and music streaming. Audible has more than 250,000 audio programs including books and plays, with downloads available for iPhones, Androids and other smartphone systems. Continue reading at AdAge.com Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'

[ Advertising Age | 2016-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Ian Harding Loves Connecting With Fans Online—Until They Show Up at His House

Specs Age 28 Claim to fame Stars as Ezra Fitz on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars; five-time Teen Choice Awards winner Base Los Angeles Twitter @IANMHARDING What's the first information you consume in the morning? I wake up, I'll meditate, and then I'll read something. I try to wake up 45... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2015-03-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BitTorrent Will Soon Produce Its Own TV Shows

BitTorrent today announced a partnership with Rapid Eye Studios to launch BitTorrent Originals. Together, the pair will create original video content and distribute it exclusively on BitTorrent Bundle, the company’s publishing platform. The post BitTorrent Will Soon Produce Its Own TV Shows... Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2015-02-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Belarus bookshop rallies against publishing crackdown

Independent publishing house Lohvinau launches crowdfunding campaign after government imposed heavy fine on Minsk literary hub“We are trapped in an absurd and unjust situation which threatens not only the existence of Lohvinau Bookstore but which endangers the possibility to publish books freely... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Belarus publisher faces January trial

Ihar Lohvinau, who won the International Publishers Association's Freedom to Publish Prize 2014 earlier this year, is to face judgement and sentencing in January, charged with selling books from his Belarus bookshop without state registration. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hachette Tries Selling Books via Twitter

The Hachette Book Group is partnering with native commerce platform Gumroad in a special promotion to sell print books by Amanda Palmer, Chris Hadfield and The Onion via Twitter beginning December 11. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publicity Campaign Calls on Booksellers to End Novel

Booksellers are usually tasked with selling books but, in a twist this holiday season, they’ve been invited to write the ending to one. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-12-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mexican Kids Bookseller Tells of Struggle for Survival

The owner of the award-winning Catarina Marina bookstore discusses the day-to-day struggle of selling books to children in Mexico. The post Mexican Kids Bookseller Tells of Struggle for Survival appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-12-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Big Idea Competition crowns Aeronaut concept

A story about three animals in a hot air balloon has won The Big Idea Competition, which launched earlier this year to find multi-platform story ideas. The competition was announced in June by Chicken House publisher and m.d. Barry Cunningham and agent Neil Blair. The pair wanted to find... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-11-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scribd Takes On Amazon's Audible With All-You-Can-Listen Audiobooks

The subscription service is adding 30,000 recorded books to the half-million ebooks it already offers.Thirteen months ago, San Francisco startup Scribd launched a service which aims to do for books what Netflix does for movies and TV shows. It offers a large-but-not-utterly-comprehensive... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2014-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gillian Flynn, Diana Gabaldon's books dominate sales lists following screen adaptations

Sales bumps after books are adapted as movies or TV shows are nothing new, but 'Gone Girl' author Flynn and 'Outlander' writer Gabaldon are seeing their older books reappear and hold steady on bestseller lists as well. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple and Amazon Have a Problem: People Don’t Want to Buy Stuff Anymore

The failure of the Fire Phone has been widely cited as the reason for Amazon’s disastrous quarter, but a darker cloud has settled over the world’s biggest online retailer. The core of Amazon’s business—its original reason for being: selling books and other media—has grown wobbly. The problem:... Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2014-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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LIMA report reveals top children's brands

Harry Potter, The Gruffalo, and Horrid Henry are the top book brands for children, according to a report commissioned by the Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA). The report—released at the Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) exhibition, held in London last week—found that books were... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2014-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Game of Thrones spawns an app to help fans learn to speak Dothraki

Publisher promises it will arm you with enough vocabulary and grammar to have a complete conversation in DothrakiLanguages created for TV shows can have a powerful fascination for fans: just look at Star Treks Klingon language for proof of that. Game of Thrones Dothraki language also fits into... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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So Starbucks Is Really Good at Instagram Videos, Too

Whether or not Starbucks' actual coffee gets you buzzing, the retailer's marketing efforts always seem like a pretty good wake-up call to the competition. The Seattle-based brand has shown rare ability with Facebook ads, Tumblr promos and mobile marketing. Now add Instagram videos to the mix. ... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2014-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Comic-Con Preview Night: New Books From Image, Dark Horse, Archie, D&Q

The traditional kickoff night for Comic-Con attracted the usual mob of fans looking to get their first glimpse of a show floor full of comics, games, TV shows and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Chris Colfer Doesn’t Want to Know What the Internet Thinks of Him

Specs Who Chris Colfer Age 24 Accomplishments Star of Fox’s Glee; screenwriter; author of The Land of Stories book series (his latest, A Grimm Warning, was just released) Base Los Angeles What’s the first information you consume in the morning? I immediately turn to my cellphone and look to... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2014-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon rebrands Cloud Player with launch of Amazon Music 3 for mobile and desktop

Amazon has refreshed its entire collection of cloud music apps with the releases of Amazon Music for Windows 3.0, Amazon Music for Mac 3.0, Amazon Music  for iPad and iPhone 3.0 and Amazon Music for Android 3.0. All four platforms share similar updates, and accompany Amazon’s foray into music... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2014-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook announces listening feature

Facebook is to release a new feature on its mobile app that will listen to and identify your music and TV shows before publishing them in a status update. Continue reading at BBC World

[ BBC World | 2014-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Is Raising The Cost Of Prime Membership

Analysts say the $20 bump, from $79 to $99, could add up to $1 billion to the company's revenue.Amazon Prime is a great deal. You get free two-day shipping on most of your packages, unlimited access to Amazon's growing trove of streaming movies and TV shows, and the ability to rent ebooks from... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2014-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HP donates $250,000 to women studying IT Security

Any job a man can do, so can a woman. Sure, there are physical differences between the sexes, but that does not have to impede success. One industry that has primarily been a men's club is IT. Historically, being a computer nerd has been a guy thing. However, over the years, women have been... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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