Spotify has once again drawn the ire of the music industry. The National Music Publishers' Association has called on the Federal Trade Commission to examine the streaming service's addition of audiobook content into all of its paid subscription plans. According to the group's FTC complaint, Spotify's recent actions are part of "a scheme to increase profits by deceiving consumers and cheating the music royalty system." This requires some backstory. In November 2023, Spotify announced that it would include 15 hours of audiobook content as part of all its Premium subscription plans. A few months later, the company unveiled a new audiobook-only subscription, offering the same number of listening hours for $10 a month. The publishers' organization claims that Spotify's recent price increases are based on offering that extra audiobook content, and that paying customers are automatically being charged for a service they didn't choose and can't opt out of without switching to the free, ad-supported listening experience. And the additional revenue from the higher Premium subscription costs may not go to the music composers. According to the FTC complaint, Spotify will pay about $150 million less in music royalties over the first year of these new bundled Premium plans. The NMPA letter goes so far as to call the new audiobook-only plan "a sham" that "exists solely to allow Spotify to claim that audiobook content is a significantly and independently valuable aspect of its 'bundled'... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-06-12 23:52:55 UTC ]
The technology of Speechki, an exhibitor at Frankfurter Buchmesse, offers faster, less expensive paths to audiobook production. (Sponsored) The post Speechki: Synthetic Voicing to Augment the Industry’s Audiobook Inventory appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-09-21 19:39:32 UTC ]
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As indicated in a leak earlier this week, Amazon is updating the Kindle Paperwhite. The fifth-gen Paperwhite (which marks the first refresh in nearly three years) has a larger, 6.8-inch display, compared with the previous model's six-inch screen. The company says the 300 ppi screen is glare-free... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-09-21 13:00:32 UTC ]
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Storytel reports seeing a rise in audiobook downloads in Russia by 45 percent in the last year. LitRes leads market. The post Audiobooks in Russia: Storytel and LitRes Cite Rising Interest appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-09-14 11:42:09 UTC ]
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Booming audiobook sales and strong performances in some of its largest markets boosted profits up 55.1% at Penguin Random House in the first six months of 2021. Revenue rose 10.9%, to €1.80 billion. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Now might be a good time to buy an e-reader for school — or that end-of-summer vacation. Amazon has cut the price of the ad-supported 8GB Kindle Paperwhite to an all-time low of $71 in a one-day-only sale, well below the official $130 sticker. That's lower than what we saw just two weeks... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-29 15:44:54 UTC ]
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Weruche Opia, best known for her role in Michaela Coel’s Bafta-winning series "I May Destroy You", will read the audiobook of the Nigerian essay collection Of This Our Country (The Borough Press) alongside fellow actor Oseloka Obi. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-26 15:58:01 UTC ]
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Cambridge University Press is to release an audiobook featuring all of Shakespeares sonnets, narrated by Lolita Chakrabarti and Kenneth Branagh. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-25 16:30:36 UTC ]
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Audible is releasing an audiobook of Peter Kay’s record-breaking autobiography The Sound of Laughter in September with two new and exclusive bonus chapters. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-25 06:53:06 UTC ]
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Independent audiobook publisher W F Howes has landed rights to Val McDermid's new Allie Burns series, releasing the first of five audiobooks this week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-20 14:12:25 UTC ]
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Emmy award-winning Scottish actor Brian Cox has been confirmed as the audiobook reader for The Dark Remains, the new novel by Ian Rankin and William McIlvanney, published by Canongate. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-18 21:48:07 UTC ]
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Over the last decade there has been a push towards better representation in visual media. While movies and television have provided more examples of non-white characters in key roles, there has also been an uptick in linguistic diversity in film. Movies like Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, which slips... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-08-17 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Dawn French will narrate an audiobook edition of Giles Andreae’s I Love My… picture books for Bolinda, the first time any of the series will be produced in audio. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-28 01:59:59 UTC ]
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The digital arm of Lindhardt & Ringhof, Saga Egmont further expands its efforts to penetrate the Spanish-language audiobook market. The post Audiobooks: Denmark’s Saga Egmont Partners With Spain’s Roca Editorial appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-07-14 17:45:23 UTC ]
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#LoveAudio, the Publishers Association's annual audiobook campaign, will return for a fifth year this month. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-10 01:47:32 UTC ]
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HarperCollins is releasing a new unabridged audiobook of J R R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in three parts in September, read by Andy Serkis, who starred as Gollum in the blockbuster movies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-07 11:53:26 UTC ]
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The Ashland, Ore.–based independent audiobook publisher is seeing double-digit growth for CDs and MP3-CDs thanks to new partnerships, even as other publishers abandon the formats. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The digital media company, which will merge with a publicly listed shell company in what is known as a SPAC deal, also lined up about $150 million in debt financing. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-06-25 00:38:07 UTC ]
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J K Rowling's Cormoran Strike series, written under the name Robert Galbraith, have hit an audiobook milestone for Little, Brown ahead of the fifth novel's paperback release. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-21 11:49:14 UTC ]
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Publishing houses in Romania are working together to produce the Echo audiobook subscription platform, a first in its market. The post Beat Technology Is Developing Romania’s First Audiobook Program appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-06-14 04:05:13 UTC ]
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Bookwire, the international e-book and audiobook distribution platform, is launching its services in the U.S. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-04 04:00:00 UTC ]
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