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 ]
'Harry Potter' cast members are reportedly filming a short movie that will be screened at the franchise's theme parks. What will the new film show? Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It used to be easy to give your loved ones books for the holidays. You went to a bookstore, browsed the shelves , and picked out something thoughtful: Jodi Picoult’s latest for your mom, Harry Potter for your niece, maybe a Bill O’Reilly rant for that uncle who never shuts up at Thanksgiving. ... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2012-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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JK Rowling's novel, The Casual Vacancy, suffers a formatting error in the US making it near-impossible to read on some e-readers. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2012-09-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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First, this is not Harry Potter. Those hoping for a dusting of Dumbledore, a sprinkling of Snape... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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J. K. Rowling says she'd need a 'fabulous idea' to go back to the world of Harry Potter. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Her first post-Harry Potter book is a work of adult fiction, but its release follows an earlier playbook: It's been kept from prying eyes. Mystery ensues.J.K. Rowling wrote "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" as a single mum on the dole. Seven books, 4,100 pages and a blockbuster film... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The success of 'Harry Potter, 'Twilight' and other has created a halo effect for the entire genre. And kids aren't the only ones doing it.For years, the book industry has been mired in debates about the plight of independent booksellers, the rise of Amazon and the fate of print as it struggles... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the market for a new e-reader? One could certainly do worse than Sony's Reader line. The company's been packing features onto its devices, and the already leaked latest entry is no different, with upgrades over its predecessor, packed into a newly redesigned body with bigger, better looking... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Fifty Shades of Grey' has passed the 'Harry Potter' books and 'The Da Vinci Code' to become the country's bestselling book. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The final book in The Hunger Games trilogy is coming to the big-screen in two parts starting in 2014. Lionsgate Films announced today that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 will be released November 21, 2014, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 will follow on November 20, 2015. The... Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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J.K. Rowling's 'Book of Spells' will allow players to wave wands and cast spells using Wonderbook technology. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-06-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sony unveils a Harry Potter-based book, part-written by JK Rowling, as the first Wonderbook title for its Playstation console. Continue reading at BBC World
[ BBC World | 2012-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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All the books in the Harry Potter series will arrive in the Kindle lending library – free for Amazon Prime members – on June 19. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter has joined the Kindle lending library.Amazon.com announced Thursday that on June 19, the ebook editions of J.K. Rowling's seven Potter novels will become part of the Kindle service available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Members can download a book for free once a month. Amazon's... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Members of the Amazon Prime subscription program will be able to read "Harry Potter'' ebooks for free through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, a move intended to encourage consumers to buy Kindle devices. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Duchess of Cornwall, Stephen Fry and actor William Rycroft are among those gearing up to hand... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sometime ago, I pledged to wait on reading the Harry Potter series until it came out as ebooks. I was ready and willing for October's planned debut on Google Books, but that was cancelled last minute. What happened instead mindboggles. In late March, author JK Rowling opened the Pottermore Shop... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2012-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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JK Rowling's first book for adults will be a "blackly comic" novel set in an idyllic English town where all is not what it seems, her publisher says. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, Fla., more than lived up to its hype for this fan. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The literary genre is white-hot in Hollywood, with filmmakers bidding on unpublished books and paying as much as $1 million for the rights to relatively modest sellers.The back-to-back blockbuster successes of "Harry Potter," "Twilight" and now "The Hunger Games" have turned the hunt for fresh... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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