[Sig-bwp] NYTimes: Catch the Next Chapter on Your iPod (It’s Even Cheaper)

[Gerry Mckiernan]

Colleagues/

Coming to An iPod Near You ...

/Gerry 

Gerry McKiernan
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library 
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

January 4, 2007
Catch the Next Chapter on Your iPod (It’s Even Cheaper) 
By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

[snip]

Unlike onscreen e-books, which never quite caught on, downloadable audiobooks have taken off, driven by the explosive popularity of the iPod.

According to the Audio Publishers Association, downloads have grown sharply, rising to 9 percent of audio book sales in 2005; that is a 50 percent increase over the previous year. Audible .com, which pioneered downloadable audio books nine years ago, also sells them through iTunes and Amazon and has a membership model similar to that of NetFlix; its membership has grown 54 percent over the last year, to 345,200. Going exclusively to a downloadable format saves publishers the expense of duplication, packaging and distribution. And the savings are often passed along. Audible’s full-price version of “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama costs $20.97 (although various discounts are available), while the CD version retails for $29.95; undiscounted, unabridged versions of Michael Crichton’s “Next” are $34.97 by download and $49.95 on CD. 

[MORE]

[ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/books/04audio.html ]