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 ]
But company says reading boom may end when Covid restrictions are liftedCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury has issued its second profit upgrade of the year, lauding a lockdown reading boom, but the trend may not endure as coronavirus... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-24 12:22:49 UTC ]
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It’s almost time for The Disability Readathon! Here are few recent #OwnVoices audiobooks by and about disabled people. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-03-23 10:31:00 UTC ]
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The Audio Publishers Association hosted the 26th annual Audie Awards virtually last night, making them open to the public for the first time. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke and narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, was named Audiobook of the Year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The surge in digital audiobook sales has helped numerous publishers grow in the last few years, and perhaps none have benefitted more than Podium Audio. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-12 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Subscription service Scribd adds audiobook titles, opening with 'Black Imagination,' to its newly launched Scribd Audio brand. The post Scribd Announces an Audiobook Production Line, Highlighting Independent Publishers appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-03-09 14:00:22 UTC ]
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WandaVision and Harry Potter ended in underwhelming beam-o-wars. This Disney classic offers a solution. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2021-03-08 20:35:26 UTC ]
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Bring great-great-great grandma back to life using deep learning. If you’ve ever seen a Harry Potter movie and were enchanted by those movie photos seen in the world’s newspapers and on mantles, you’re going to want to give a new tool called Deep Nostalgia from genealogy site MyHeritage a... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2021-03-05 06:24:58 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House Audio has launched Ahab, a global online casting platform for voiceover actors in any business. The platform was originally developed as an internal tool for PRH's audiobook producers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-04 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Charlotte Ritchie, the star of “Ghosts” and “Feel Good”, will narrate the audiobook of Lia Middleton's debut thriller When They Find Her (Michael Joseph). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-28 22:42:39 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster Children’s Books is to launch an audiobook partnership with the Daily Mail. It will also feature a retail tie-in with Waterstones, with a campaign fronted by children’s author and actor Ben Miller (pictured). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-24 18:49:20 UTC ]
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Last March, amid the myriad upheavals and uncertainties that marked early pandemic life, various scientists and public health officials started to model out how many cases and deaths we might be looking at in the long run, and the press, unsurprisingly, took great interest in their work. A team... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-02-23 13:34:38 UTC ]
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Skyhorse Publishing, the imprint behind director Woody Allen's memoir, is considering suing HBO for sampling its audiobook for a documentary series. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-22 22:46:48 UTC ]
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From stickers to mugs and awesome tees, show off your passion for listening with these sweet gifts for audiobook lovers. - Kelly Jensen Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-02-17 11:33:00 UTC ]
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Why do some audiobooks have two versions with different or same narrator? Here’s what to do if undecided on picking an audiobook version. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-02-15 11:37:00 UTC ]
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Richard Armitage, Sheila Atim and Joseph Fiennes are starring in five new audiobook adaptations of stories from 2000 AD, including Judge Dredd and Halo Jones. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-14 17:22:53 UTC ]
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Audiobook company RBmedia has acquired Booka, a Barcelona-based audiobook publishing company, and its full catalog of Spanish language titles. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-02-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The digital distributor reports a rise in audiobook titles of 123 percent in 2020 over the previous year. Print-on-demand advanced 18 percent. The post Germany-Based Bookwire in 2020: Titles Up 11 Percent Over 2019 appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-02-08 05:46:46 UTC ]
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Adjoa Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury in the hit Netflix series "Bridgerton", is reading the audiobook for An Ordinary Wonder by Buki Papillon, out with Dialogue Books in March. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-08 01:26:23 UTC ]
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Nicole Rycroft's track record when it comes to protecting forests and fighting climate change includes a successful campaign to green all the copies of the last book in the Harry Potter series. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2021-02-04 02:30:09 UTC ]
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“Much of what has been created to give purpose to lonely, empty hours will not be seen by future generations—the muffins eaten, the gardens remodeled or abandoned. Words on the page, though, have longevity.” Anne Youngson considers pandemic hobbies and writing fiction. | Lit Hub What it’s like... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-29 11:30:33 UTC ]
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