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 ]
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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Charlie Mackesy will narrate the audiobook of his bestseller The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, with a musical score and real wildlife sounds helping bring it to life. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-30 07:56:33 UTC ]
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The music streaming giant is poised to enter the audiobook market. Here's what that means for publishers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Jumping from one to three major unlimited-subscription services for audio content, Spain's publishing market is growing fast. The post Audiobook Subscriptions: Audible and Podimo Join Storytel in Spain appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-09-21 16:07:40 UTC ]
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IN THE LATE 1990s and early 2000s, millennials in the United States were tweens and teens, and the Harry Potter phenomenon hit hard. There was nothing so comforting in the face of overseas wars and 9/11 as a bit of Blairite neoliberalism from abroad: the British school novel wrapped up with a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-09-19 15:00:45 UTC ]
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The long-rumored Harry Potter open-world game finally has a release date. Hogwarts Legacy will come out sometime in 2021. Sony shared a lengthy cinematic trailer during its PlayStation 5 showcase detailing what you’ll do the game. You’ll play as a wi... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2020-09-16 20:27:10 UTC ]
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Gore Vidal’s “Hollywood” is finally getting the audiobook treatment, and not a moment too soon. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-09-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Famed writer and activist Cory Doctorow is selling the audio version of his upcoming book via Kickstarter to sidestep the walled garden of Amazon-owned audiobook platform Audible. When science fiction writer and activist Cory Doctorow releases his new novel, Attack Surface, next month, you’ll be... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2020-09-12 09:00:52 UTC ]
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With books delayed by the pandemic reaching shops alongside other titles aimed at the Christmas market, the trade has seen sales boomBooksellers up and down the UK are reporting a boom in sales since readers returned to bookshops after the lockdown, with the first avalanche of Christmas titles... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-09-11 12:40:19 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. Seraphine Valentine narrates Alexis Daria’s charming romance, You Had Me at Hola, where the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-11 08:41:16 UTC ]
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Holliday Grainger will read the audiobook version of Dolly Alderton's eagerly-awaited debut novel Ghosts (Fig Tree). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-02 15:24:17 UTC ]
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The prankish device is the subject of a new audiobook that pokes serious fun at Silicon Valley’s culture of disruption. We spoke with its inventor. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2020-08-31 12:00:00 UTC ]
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The Oscar-nominated actor narrates “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” in an audiobook project he says “doesn’t change my perspective so much as it amplifies it.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-30 09:00:11 UTC ]
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Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling says she is returning an award from a human rights group linked to the Kennedy family after the president of the organization criticized her comments about transgender issues. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2020-08-28 20:34:31 UTC ]
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