Last week, The New York Times ran an interesting piece reporting that downloadable audio books have taken off in recent years due to the popularity of the iPod. All kinds of kinds of titles are now being released in downloadable format only. Rather than producing CDs, publishers are releasing audio books only as downloads from websites that offer digital audio versions of books and other spoken content, such as Audible.com. According the article, the Audio Publishers Association reports that downloads accounted for 9% of audio book sales in 2005, a 50% increase from 2004. I have to say that I understand the appeal; last summer and fall I spent many hours running (see bio) and listening to audio books downloaded to my iPod. It was perfect – a really wonderful and exciting discovery for me. But beyond the advantage of enjoying a book where you might not be able to read the print version, the article discusses a couple other reasons for the increase in download-only books. As the piece explains, “Going exclusively to a downloadable saves publishers the expense of duplication, packaging and distribution.” And publishers pass those savings on to customers by offering a lower price on downloads than for audio CDs, so everybody wins. In addition, some genres sell very well as downloads because of their particular content: for example, “7 of the top 10 download-only sellers on Audible [are] in the erotica genre.” As the story notes, erotica titles, which might not sell particularly well in bookstores, sell well as downloads because they “can be procured online discreetly and can be listened to discreetly as well.”
For more on this and some interesting examples of what publishers are doing, read the article here. (Also, don’t miss the reference to Holtzbrinck Audio Renaissance producer Laura Wilson.)
Last week, The New York Times ran an interesting piece reporting that downloadable audio books have taken off in recent years due to the popularity of the iPod. All kinds of kinds of titles are now being released in downloadable format only. Rather than producing CDs, publishers are releasing audio books only as downloads from websites that offer digital audio versions of books and other spoken content, such as Audible.com. According the article, the Audio Publishers Association reports that downloads accounted for 9% of audio book sales in 2005, a 50% increase from 2004. I have to say that I understand the appeal; last summer and fall I spent many hours running (see bio) and listening to audio books downloaded to my iPod. It was perfect – a really wonderful and exciting discovery for me. But beyond the advantage of enjoying a book where you might not be able to read the print version, the article discusses a couple other reasons for the increase in download-only books. As the piece explains, “Going exclusively to a downloadable saves publishers the expense of duplication, packaging and distribution.” And publishers pass those savings on to customers by offering a lower price on downloads than for audio CDs, so everybody wins. In addition, some genres sell very well as downloads because of their particular content: for example, “7 of the top 10 download-only sellers on Audible [are] in the erotica genre.” As the story notes, erotica titles, which might not sell particularly well in bookstores, sell well as downloads because they “can be procured online discreetly and can be listened to discreetly as well.”
From Matt: The scriptwriters made quite a few changes from the book, but they were all for the best - and booklover though I am I have to admit that its better to see magic than to read about it.
From Mina: I adore this film. Monsieur Hulot’s very modern sister and brother-in-law don’t know what to do with Tati’s charmingly untidy and bungling protagonist, who inhabits a world where meaning is still more important than appearances.
From Carey: A must see Hayao Miyazaki’s anime is Laputa: Castle in the Sky, originally released in 1986. A fantasy film that explores the altruistic and compassionate nature of humans, aspects lost through repeated exposure to power, technology, and the complexities brought by the combination of the two. 
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