When is a book not a book? When it is performed by a starry cast of hundreds. Except it has always been more complicated than thatNews this week of a 17% hike in the UK’s audiobook sales might seem like a niche business story, but it raises an existential question. What exactly is an audiobook today? Is it a book? Is it a play? Or is it becoming something else entirely? What is clear is that a jostle for market dominance is driving it into new dimensions. The streaming platform Spotify followed its move into podcasting two years ago with the launch of an audiobooks business. Though it has yet to start making its own recordings, last autumn it made a deal for 200,000 audiobooks to be available to its premium users.Not to be outdone, Amazon-owned Audible – accustomed to being the market leader – upped its game, hiring the Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes to record multi-voice versions of the Dickens novels Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, and announcing last month that it had reached an agreement for a recording of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, voiced by more than 100 actors and featuring a “groundbreaking new soundscape”. The new Potter audiobooks, it said, would not usurp but “sit alongside and complement” conventional recordings by Stephen Fry and Jim Dale, which Audible also hosts. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-05-10 17:25:03 UTC ]
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Narrator Dion Graham joins AudioFile’s Michele Cobb to discuss his narration of King: A Life, written by Jonathan Eig, and one of AudioFile’s 2023 Best Biography & Memoir Audiobooks. Listen to hear Graham discussing the research and preparations that went into this narration, and the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-04 09:08:51 UTC ]
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You can read countless ebooks, listen to audiobooks, and browse comics with one of these WIRED-tested digital reading subscriptions. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2023-12-02 14:00:00 UTC ]
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The Game Awards got it wrong this year. One of the titles nominated for Best Independent Game, Dave the Diver, was produced by Nexon, one of the largest video game studios in South Korea. No matter how hard you squint, it is not indie. Dave the Diver is an excellent pixel-art game about deep-sea... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-12-01 20:52:11 UTC ]
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Each month, for your literary listening pleasure, our friends at AudioFile Magazine bring us the cream of the audiobook crop. Now, at 2023 draws to a close, they’ve rounded up the very best audiobooks of the year. Happy listening and happy holidays! * FICTION AudioFile’s 2023 Best Fiction... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-01 14:03:20 UTC ]
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Perdita Weeks reads the audiobook version of Megan Barnard’s debut novel, reimagining the Israeli queen as a source of mythic, feminist anger. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-01 10:00:14 UTC ]
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The U.K.-based publisher said a proposed stock market delisting will save money and give it more flexibility to react to business challenges and opportunities. The U.S. is Quarto's largest market. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-01 05:00:00 UTC ]
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After 30 years in business, the company will offer direct-to-consumer sales, marketing, and printing services for what founder and CEO Charles Melcher calls "a focused list of clientele." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bimonthly magazine, which covers and reviews audiobooks, has named its Best Audiobooks of 2023. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The Audio Publishers Association's Michele Cobb sees a steady gain by audiobooks in the United States' publishing marketplace. The post APA: Audiobooks’ US Share Up 5 Percent, 2017 to 2022 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-11-22 19:35:05 UTC ]
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The Libro.fm audiobook sale has thousands of audiobooks available at a great discount. Get everything from Fourth Wing to Yellowface. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-11-22 17:30:38 UTC ]
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Project Gutenberg's AI audiobook project is yet another instance of AI encroaching on the book industry. But how do the audiobooks sound? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-11-22 11:36:00 UTC ]
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“Going Infinite” may have missed the big takeaway, but it offers at least one undeniable pleasure: deep access. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-11-17 14:25:02 UTC ]
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When Mike Sotelo, vice president of digital content and experience at ad agency Alma, experimented with OpenAI's generative artificial intelligence tool GPT-3 in Spanish earlier this year, it wasn't long before he came across a language gap. Sotelo entered two prompts: "How does a guey [a... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2023-11-13 21:00:00 UTC ]
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Founded in 2010, the lending library encourages literacy through bilingual story hours, book discussion groups, and film screenings. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The digital publisher G/O Media has shuttered Jezebel, the feminist publisher, amid a broader sweep of layoffs across the G/O Media portfolio that will affect 23 staff in total, according to an internal memo shared by chief executive Jim Spanfeller. The cuts come just two days after the company... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2023-11-09 16:29:51 UTC ]
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In addition to music and podcasts, Spotify has recently been working to cement its presence in the audiobook space. Today, the company announced Premium users in the US will be able to stream 15 hours of free audiobook content monthly as a part of their subscription.... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-11-08 19:20:00 UTC ]
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A little over a month after launching in the U.K. and Australia, Spotify's new streaming audiobook service is now available the U.S., meaning that tens of millions of Spotify premium subscribers now have access to a catalog of more than 200,000 audiobook titles—including titles from all the Big... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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In an October 30 message, Goodreads officials urged users to report activity designed to “harass readers or authors, or attempt to artificially deflate or inflate the overall rating” of books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's self-publishing arm has begun a beta test on technology allowing KDP authors to produce audiobook versions of their e-books using virtual voice narration. The audiobooks will be available wherever Audible titles are sold. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Since its inception in 2019, the children’s publisher has quietly amassed a list of award-winning and bestselling titles with a focus on stories about the Latine experience by Latine creators. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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