ENTRIES TAGGED "audiobooks"

Open Source, Community and Audiobooks: Q&A with LibriVox Founder Hugh McGuire

LibriVox is a volunteer effort with a big goal: record audiobook editions for every title in the public domain. In this Q&A, LibriVox founder Hugh McGuire discusses the project's beginnings, the organic development of the LibriVox community, and the distinctions (or lack thereof) between "professional" and "amateur" efforts.

Audible CEO: Publishing Has History of Tech Ambivalence

In an interview with Fast Company, Audible CEO Donald Katz discusses the publishing industry's history of slow technological acceptance: Publishing is an industry pursuing a noble cultural calling. But publishing has always had an ambivalent relationship to technology-driven change. In fact, the music publishing business spent a whole lot of time trying to kill off the phonograph. The publishing…

News Roundup: Digital Text App Uses Facebook, Subject/Author Sites Better than Brands, Saying Goodbye to Audiobook Cassettes

App Mashes Up Digital Text on Facebook Platform Digital Texts 2.0 is an interesting application for Facebook that lets you group and share digital material. It's intriguing to see cutting edge development occurring in this space. From the Digital Texts 2.0 about page: Digital Texts 2.0 was undertaken by Dr. Stéfan Sinclair as an initiative to experiment with applying…

Last Days of the Audiobook Cassette

In the wake of Hachette's last cassette-based audiobook, the New York Times eulogizes a format many thought was already long gone: Cassettes have limped along for some time, partly because of their usefulness in recording conversations or making a tape of favorite songs, say, for a girlfriend. But sales of portable tape players, which peaked at 18 million in…

News Roundup: Kindle 2.0 Speculation, Wikipedia: The Book, "Dilbert" Embraces User-Generated Content, Mobile Audiobook Downloads, Tracking Drafts and Revisions

Speculation on Kindle 2.0 Ars Technica speculates on what the Kindle 2.0 might provide: … the general hardware configuration appears to be here for a while. The fact that they're still selling the current version also suggests that they have committed to this design in all its white-plastic glory. In the long term, there's still the option of moving some…

UK Service Brings Audiobook Downloads to Mobile Phones

UK-based GoSpoken has partnered with Random House to make 50 audiobook titles available for purchase through the GoSpoken mobile download service. GoSpoken is currently aimed at early adopter UK residents who have broadband-capable cellphones (specifically, HSDPA-enabled) and mobile data plans. Managing director Tony Lynch describes the genesis of GoSpoken on the company's blog: As I travel round London, I…

Tag an Audio Clip, Buy it Later

Digital tagging and mobile downloads could reduce the line between content discovery and purchase.