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 ]
The "Harry Potter" series, which has conquered mediums from books to movies, is finally available in ebook format. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pottermore has partnered with ebook company Overdrive to bring electronic versions of the 'Harry Potter' series to libraries and schools in five languages. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 01/09/2011 - 08:51 Readers will be able to download the ebook of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for free with the limited edition model of the new Sony Reader. Further details have emerged about the Reader, which is set to go on sale in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Thu, 18/08/2011 - 15:17 Titan has acquired an accompaniment to the Harry Potter film franchise, which drew to a close this summer with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. Harry Potter: Page to Screen: The Complete Film-making Journey will... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scam artists are selling fake early access to the Pottermore Web site or asking for personal data to register an "account." Either way, you're going to be sorry if you interact with them. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-08-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 28/07/2011 - 08:37 BBC Radio 4 seems to have performed a partial u-turn on its decision to cut the number of short stories it airs from three to one per week, with a compromise of two weekly broadcasts. Listeners, authors and celebrities such as... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Mon, 23/05/2011 - 09:22 John Blake is to offer an unofficial guide to the witticisms of actor, TV presenter, writer, comedian and noted Twitter-phile Stephen Fry. The Wit and Wisdom of Stephen Fry, to be published in October, will be a collection of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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