Download: the next stage

Last year MP3-CDs were the latest thing, and now they are an increasingly common format, especially for longer titles, fitting 10 or 15 hours onto just one or two discs. With seemingly every second person sporting the little white wires out of the ears that designate iPod addiction, it’s helpful to know that it’s an easy task to transfer an MP3-CD audio book onto a portable MP3 player.

Now audio book producers are telling us that the next revolution will be the direct downloading of MP3 files from the internet directly to iPods and similar portable devices, cutting out the CD altogether.

US-based Audible.com is one of the pioneers of direct download of audio books. After something of a shaky start, Audible has recently bounced back to record an increase in revenues of 91% in the last year. According to Book Publishing Report, Audible has found that ‘half of its first-time customers have never before listened to an audio book, suggesting the new technology is driving people to audio books.’

Australian audio book publisher Bolinda has recently partnered with Audible, meaning that its extensive roster of Australian content will soon become available for worldwide download through Apple’s iTunes stores. And ABC Audio has indicated that a download system using the ABC Shops’ website is on the cards.

In the UK, BBC Audiobooks and HarperCollins Audio are among the big-name book publishers to sign up to The Spoken Network, a similar download portal that will ‘soft launch’ this month. The Spoken Network boasts built-in digital rights management to ensure that publishers and authors receive proper royalties and to stop pirating.

Not quite (or not just) audio books

If we were being strict, we could define audio books solely as readings of previously published books. But audio producers are offering a range of products that are more than just adaptations of books.

The Five Mile Press has developed a series of book and CD packages using the well-known faces of the ‘Hi 5’ crew. Dazzler Ducks and Penny the Clown offer a ‘listen as you read’ approach, perfect for building the confidence of kids just learning how to read. With Shirley Barber’s Bedtime Stories, Five Mile Press have gone even further, packaging a 3D-illustrated book with special 3D glasses and a CD. It’s very pink!

With most greeting cards selling for over the five dollar-mark these days, ABC Audio is really onto something with its range of CD gift cards, containing a blank greeting card and a CD with a selection of classical music from the vast ABC catalogue—all for $7.95!

Wide open road

Long car journeys are one of the ideal opportunities for listening to audio books, so Bolinda has decided to put audio books right in the reach of drivers when they’re most focused on their journey—at the petrol station.

Bolinda’s product manager Jill Farrar reports that trials of the distinctive apple green stands at BP service stations have been a success and that ‘in the next couple of months Bolinda will double the number of stands’ with more going into BP stations, and also at selected Caltex stations and other roadhouses.

‘Feedback from the stores suggests that the primary customers are professionals on the road and truck drivers, and our secondary customers are families,’ Farrar told AB&P. Thus far, bestsellers have included titles by Bryce Courtenay, Matthew Reilly, Robert G Barrett, Tracey Cox and Tara Moss; with Stig Wemyss’ Tripp Diaries #2 and Graeme Base’s Truck Dogs the top listens for kids.

This article from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2005, Thorpe-Bowker