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Christina Hardyment
July 9th, 2005
The Times
Downloading audiobooks from internet companies on to your computer or MP3 player is the most exciting development to hit the spoken word publishing industry since the invention of the CD... The good news is that on June 15 Audible opened a UK website (www.audible.co.uk). You can select from a huge range of books, to say nothing of radio talks and comedy shows such as LITTLE BRITAIN... Downloading does more than slashing prices; it also makes listening much easier. You no longer have to fumble with tapes, CDs and splintered plastic cases. Downloading is also opening up the pleasures of audiobook listening to a quite new market. Audible has noticed that many of its customers have never bought audiobooks, but drifted into downloading spoken word listening rather than music. So when you wonder what the Queen is listening to on her iPod, it might just be her favorite Dick Francis.
Victor Keegan
June 16th, 2005
The Guardian
The next time you see someone glued to their iPod, don't disturb them: they might be doing their homework. In the United States, some universities are supplying set books and course material in digital form so they can be downloaded to an iPod or similar... It is provided by Audible, which has a gargantuan 95% of the online audiobook market. It supplies audiobooks for iTunes and markets online versions of the BBC's audiobook portfolio, which has a 40% share of the packaged audiobook market in the UK. A test of the service this week was successful... Listening to a book while walking to work was very agreeable.
A NOVEL USE FOR IPODS
Claire Allfree
February 24th, 2005
The Independent
Once upon a time, the audio cassette book was something you gave your granny while she was recovering from her hip operation in hospital...
But today, the much-maligned audio book has shaken off its image as "books for the blind" and is at the centre of the latest revolution in publishing: the MP3 audio book format.
That man walking down the street with the ubiquitous white nuggets in his ears might not be listening to The Duke Spirit's new single. He might be listening to War and Peace...
MP3 books can be accessed in one of two ways. You can either download them from the internet from specialist websites, such as www.audible.com, or you can buy them as a download CD.
SITES AND SOUNDS
Daniela Soave
July 10th, 2004
DAILY MAIL
STORY TIME It's not just music you can store in your MP3 player, but talking books as well - great for traveling. If you own CD audio books, the process for putting them onto your computer is exactly the same as for tracks. There are also dedicated websites that offer thousands of titles.
Most popular is www.audible.com, which offers a choice from more than 50,000 hours of audio books for a monthly subscription, although you can buy one-off downloads at a higher price.
SECOND SIGHT
Dave Birch
July 1st, 2004
The Guardian
...I listen to more than just music. There is a convenient interface between iTunes, the iPod and the Audible.com audiobooks service.I have bought a few audiobooks to listen to in the car, including books for the children to keep them entertained on long car trips, and have a few audio magazine subscriptions as well. I now listen to Scientific American in the car rather than picking up the occasional paper issue....
ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? NET SOUNDS
April 1st, 2004
Internet Magazine
It's not just about music. Spoken word audio is popular online, and provides a wide range of information, education and entertainment.
Audible (www.audible.com) sells digital audio books from authors including Michael Moore, Robert Harris, Bill Bryson and Michael Crichton. Listeners can stream them from the site or download them to their computers for playback later or burning to CD. The recordings can also be ported to a compatible portable player like the iPod.
A three hour audiobook would be a monster file to download as an MP3, so the site uses its own audio format, optimised for speech. Files are available at four different quality levels--the highest quality is 16MB/hour, and the lowest is 2MB/hour...
AUDIBLE REVOLUTION
Ben Hammersley
February 12th, 2004
The Guardian
...Audible is an American company which started off selling downloadable audio books, but now its fastest growing market isn't books, but downloadable radio programmes. They sell subscriptions to recordings of many popular daily American national talk radio shows, and even to read-aloud versions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The freedom given to the listener, of being able to choose when and where to listen to their favourite programming is proving extremely popular. Add that to the feedback fostered by the increasingly online-savvy listenership that are searching these things out, and you have a potent mix. Liberating the listeners from time and place, and allowing them to talk back to the programme-makers is one thing: liberating the programme-makers is even better. You can get away with a lot more on the internet.
HOME SAPIENS
Tibor Fischer
October 18th, 2003
The Times
...There's something special about an author reading his own work, although very few are as good as Camus. The range of material available on CD is growing all the time (and in addition, you can download ready-made digital listening from www.audible.com)...
RECREATION IN THE FAST LANE
David Price
The Sunday Times
May 4th, 2003
www.audible.com ****
In the pantheon of broadband achievements, the humble talking book seems an unlikely entrant. However, this worthy contender offers blistering downloads and a vast choice of audio material that can be enjoyed any time, any place, anywhere, on a computer or a portable MP3 or CD player. Thousands of audio books in 15 genres, from drama and poetry to business, by authors as diverse as Ian McEwan and Richard P Feynman, are available at reasonable prices (from about £10 a month); £45 buys a year of your computer speaking The New York Times's editorial to you during the drive to work. Various levels of audio quality are offered - along with CD-burning - but even the best is obviously compressed. Electronically unputdownable.
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