Audiobooks

Free serialized audio books, delivered on your schedule. Many unpublished (as well as published) authors here though there seems to be a lot of content of remarkably high quality. Science-fiction and fantasy appear to be the most popular genres. Obviously a way to get listened to, and eventually read!

OverDrive, one of the main suppliers of audio content to libraries and other institutions, is adding DRM-free titles to its catalog, and going direct-to-consumer.

Now that audiobook publishers are backing off from DRM–Penguin appears ready to follow Random House—isn’t it time for this to happen on the e-book side?

Five points to ponder.

Penguin is planning to offer audiobooks that are free of digital copyright protection technology, which will allow buyers to play them on any digital device, dismissing fears that they could become the latest target for online pirates.

Another step in the right direction.

Here’s good news for audio-bibliophiles. Random House Audio has announced that it will now allow its audiobooks to be sold without DRM by all of its online retailers. Hopefully the other major publishers will follow suit.

Back to the question of whether listening to audiobooks counts as reading. Peter Kerry Powers, English professor, ponders the issue, reminding us that traditionally, historically, books were made to be listened to. Temple readers and town criers, he says, were the original audiobooks and podcasts. Our one-on-one intense and silent engagement with books is only one method of reading.

Obama on Sunday won the spoken word Grammy for the audiobook version of his blockbuster tome "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream." It marked his second statuette, following a win in 2006 for "Dreams From My Father," an audiobook for a memoir first published in 1995.

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) just announced the finalists for the 2008 Audie Awards that honors audiobook excellence in 30 categories.

Amazon announced today that it will be acquiring Audible, Inc. the country’s largest provider of digital downloads of spokenword audio to expand its reach in digital audio content. Audible, Inc. has over 80,000 programs, which include digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, original programming, and TV and radio subscriptions. Very interesting.

For those more comfortable in a language other than English, Rickshaw Productions Limited has launched The Listening Zone, where consumers can download nearly 600 books in foreign language translations, including Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. The collection is searchable by language, author, narrator, publisher and subject. There is a charge for the service.