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 ]
Miriam Margoyles is to narrate the audiobook of Catherine Bruton's latest middle-grade novel, Another Twist in the Tale. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-03 15:31:19 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. AudioFile’s Alan Minskoff and host Jo Reed discuss The Fragile Earth, an eye-opening... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-02 16:59:56 UTC ]
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Michael Specter’s audiobook brings the immediacy of voices to the scientist’s story. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-10-30 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Actor Matthew McConaughey has the #1 book in the country with ‘Greenlights.’ Plus books on baking and escapist photography help ease the lockdown blues, and a new edition of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ pops up. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-10-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephen Fry, Ben Bailey Smith and Helena Bonham Carter are to narrate the audio edition of The Book of Hopes: Words and Pictures to Comfort, Inspire and Entertain (Bloomsbury), edited by Katherine Rundell. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-29 19:07:20 UTC ]
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Yes, it’s Kristin Scott Thomas, our most recent Mrs. Danvers and our forever Fiona. Can’t you just imagine her as the narrator of Cusk’s cool-toned autofictions? The best part is, she got the gig because she’s a fan. “Faber heard that I was a Rachel Cusk fan so I was thrilled when they asked me... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 15:18:37 UTC ]
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After shaky start in lockdown, Bloomsbury sales soar as people pick books over box setsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe Harry Potter publisher, Bloomsbury, has reported its most profitable first half in more than a decade, after a nation tiring of box sets fuelled... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-10-27 12:22:12 UTC ]
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Sally Phillips has recorded the audiobook edition of Alexandra Potter’s new novel Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-26 06:15:07 UTC ]
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Samantha Bond will narrate the audiobook of S J Bennett’s novel, The Windsor Knot. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-21 13:14:02 UTC ]
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Nigerian-American writer, producer, and actress Yetide Badaki, well known for acting in the TV series This Is Us and American Gods, comes from a family of storytellers. She recalls sitting by the fire as a youth and listening to her elders. “Storytelling is such a part of just being,” she says.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-20 08:48:10 UTC ]
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It smelled like Clinton’s emails redux. Last Wednesday, the Murdoch-owned New York Post published a bizarre story, sliming Joe Biden and his son Hunter, that it said was based on files (including, yes, emails) from a laptop that a man who may or may not have been Hunter left in a Delaware... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-10-19 12:20:19 UTC ]
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SUSANNA CLARKE FIRST BURST on the scene with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 2004 on a wave of publicity partly fueled by comparisons with Harry Potter. However, while both stories are set in England and concern magic, the similarities end there: Jonathan Strange presents a complex, dark,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-18 17:00:59 UTC ]
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Julie Walters will be featuring as part of an all-star cast for the audiobook of Jasper Rees' authorised biography of Victoria Wood, Let's Do It. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-13 08:49:54 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Marin Ireland narrates Rumaan Alam’s stunning audiobook Leave the World Behind, which... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-12 08:00:42 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Joel Richards emulates the quiet reverential voice of climate scientist Marco Tedesco as he... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-09 15:32:33 UTC ]
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What's reported to be the first study of audiobook consumer behavior in Australia points to a new, young audience for the format. The post Nielsen Book Releases Australian Audiobook Consumer Research appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-10-08 19:52:16 UTC ]
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Michael Specter’s audiobook biography shapes the story of Anthony Fauci into a stirring, and very American, morality play. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-10-06 20:52:57 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Dan Richards narrates his audiobook, Outpost, in a clear English accent that often sounds as... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-05 17:53:36 UTC ]
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Last month, 58 writers, journalists and artists signed a letter in the Sunday Times in support of JK Rowling, condemning the ‘onslaught of abuse’ she has received regarding her views on sex, gender and trans rights. Signatories included Tom Stoppard, Ian McEwan and Lionel Shriver. Three days... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-04 20:35:25 UTC ]
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Every Monday through Friday, AudioFile’s editors recommend the best in audiobook listening. We keep our daily episodes short and sweet, with audiobook clips to give you a sample of our featured listens. Narrator Sisi Aisha Johnson embodies all of the joy and light of fourth grader Ryan Hart in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-02 09:13:44 UTC ]
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