Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing • Hacker News Board

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#31

Post by chiefalchemist » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

re: " Audiobooks are the fastest growing part of publishing..."

I hate to jump in and jump off topic but statements like that really annoy me. First, when a market is tiny but growing even small increases look amazing as a percentage.

And then there's the maturity of the publishing market itself. Anything new that's growing is going to be growing more than the otherwise mature no-growth market.

The question here is: How much new incremental business is this actually creating? Or, much like music CDs years ago, are most people simple trading one format for another newer one?

Yes, those re-sales still count but it also creates a false sense that the market itself is actually growing; that new buyers are coming on board. Again, ask the music industry if they regret getting hooked on the "bonus" revenue from CDs. And how that not only drove people to downloads, but that false growth created a false peak that made the digital crash hurt even more.

Again, please pardon the somewhat off-topic-ness.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#32

Post by dmitriid » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #26

goldcd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Individual prices of books exist solely to push you towards the monthly x-many-books model - which is pretty good value. I've been a member since 2005/6 (pre-amazon ownership) and I think my longest recurrent monthly thing. Audiobooks were historically insanely expensive - I used to borrow massive folders of cassette taps from my library of 'unabridged books' back in the 90s. Staple of my family holidays trapped in a…

How come audio books can be as or even more expensive than the same book in paper format? There's no production, shipping, and so on involved with digital products, and the recording itself is a few hours with the voice talent, often the author themselves, and a few more people in a small studio.

”A few hours with a few people” is

- often multiple hours in the studio because people make mistakes, they get tired, they want to re-do passages etc.

- during recording you want at the very least a sound technician, the voice talent, and a director/author/producer to listen in and give direction/corrections/adjustments on the reading

- after recording you need at least an editor, a director/producer to make sure the recording is cut correctly.

And then off to the presses (that is, converting RAW audio to whatever digital formats).

A designer may also be involved if the book requires a different cover.

Disclosure: I work at Storytel though not anywhere near (other than physically) audiobook recordings.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#33

Post by chiefalchemist » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #23

carrja99 wrote: post #7

I just love audio books. I listen to them while walking the dog, working out or doing chores around the house.

I've tried it a few times, but I have a few problems with them: I can't skip boring parts, like long descriptions or other annoying parts. I zone out from time to time when doing other things, and I have to skip back and try to find where I lost track. Sometimes I have to go back and reread numbers, names, and other important info, but that's much harder with audio.

I have the same issues. My conclusion is to listen to things that were intended to be heard (e.g., speeches, plays, etc.).

That said, I've read / heard that if you want to increase listening comprehension, speed up the play back. The novelty + speed forces the brain to focus more and listen closer.

Moi? For listening, I listen to music. I still read paper books because I already spend too much time gazing into a screen (writing code).

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#34

Post by thisone » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

Causality1 wrote: post #18

_i____ii_______ wrote: post #3

Audible's greatest assault is on my wallet. So many audiobooks on that platform are exorbitantly expensive.

Yep. Fifty hours of Netflix is fifteen dollars a month. Fifty hours of Audible content is close to a hundred bucks. Now, two dollars per hour is cheap compared to traditional entertainment like movie theaters and DVDs but downright insane compared to YouTube and Spotify.

Hmmm, 100 hours of audible content would run me about 3 books. So around £18 when buying bulk credits. Or £24 when buying monthly.

But I was taught to buy books by weight. Which has turned out to be good advice.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#35

Post by _i____ii_______ » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:28 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #32

sorenjan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come audio books can be as or even more expensive than the same book in paper format? There's no production, shipping, and so on involved with digital products, and the recording itself is a few hours with the voice talent, often the author themselves, and a few more people in a small studio.

”A few hours with a few people” is - often multiple hours in the studio because people make mistakes, they get tired, they want to re-do passages etc. - during recording you want at the very least a sound technician, the voice talent, and a director/author/producer to listen in and give direction/corrections/adjustments on the reading - after recording you need at least an editor, a director/producer to make sure the…

People do Librivox recordings free of charge as volunteers. Those recordings are just as good as Audible recordings. I myself, with rudimentary gear and a free DAW, can create an Audible level recording for the mere cost of my time. I'm going to have to totally reject your list of expenses. Sounds like a bunch of superfluous positions and bloat.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#36

Post by TylerE » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:32 PM UTC

chiefalchemist wrote: post #31

re: " Audiobooks are the fastest growing part of publishing..." I hate to jump in and jump off topic but statements like that really annoy me. First, when a market is tiny but growing even small increases look amazing as a percentage. And then there's the maturity of the publishing market itself. Anything new that's growing is going to be growing more than the otherwise mature no-growth market. The question here is:…

Audible alone did over $3 billion last year.

"Major publishers have confirmed to Good e-Reader that 1 out of every 10 books sold is in the audio format ...

HarperCollins stated that downloadable audio accounted for about 25% of all digital revenue in the recent first three months of 201"

https://goodereader.com/blog/audiobooks/good-e-reader-global...

Hardly tiny.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#37

Post by islanderfun » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:39 PM UTC

_i____ii_______ wrote: post #35

dmitriid wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

”A few hours with a few people” is - often multiple hours in the studio because people make mistakes, they get tired, they want to re-do passages etc. - during recording you want at the very least a sound technician, the voice talent, and a director/author/producer to listen in and give direction/corrections/adjustments on the reading - after recording you need at least an editor, a director/producer to make sure the…

People do Librivox recordings free of charge as volunteers. Those recordings are just as good as Audible recordings. I myself, with rudimentary gear and a free DAW, can create an Audible level recording for the mere cost of my time. I'm going to have to totally reject your list of expenses. Sounds like a bunch of superfluous positions and bloat.

Isn't this the equivalent of "I can do Dropbox in one weekend"?

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#38

Post by zaat » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:40 PM UTC

_i____ii_______ wrote: post #35

dmitriid wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

”A few hours with a few people” is - often multiple hours in the studio because people make mistakes, they get tired, they want to re-do passages etc. - during recording you want at the very least a sound technician, the voice talent, and a director/author/producer to listen in and give direction/corrections/adjustments on the reading - after recording you need at least an editor, a director/producer to make sure the…

People do Librivox recordings free of charge as volunteers. Those recordings are just as good as Audible recordings. I myself, with rudimentary gear and a free DAW, can create an Audible level recording for the mere cost of my time. I'm going to have to totally reject your list of expenses. Sounds like a bunch of superfluous positions and bloat.

If you can't tell the difference between the average LibriVox recording and the average commercial audio book, there is no way you can produce an Audible level of recording.

Even if half the volunteering recorders and their gear were as good as those of the commercial offerings, just sitting and selecting those that are not good enough for publishing and those that require some re-recording is a massive extra work.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#39

Post by chiefalchemist » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:41 PM UTC

TylerE wrote: post #36

chiefalchemist wrote: post #31

re: " Audiobooks are the fastest growing part of publishing..." I hate to jump in and jump off topic but statements like that really annoy me. First, when a market is tiny but growing even small increases look amazing as a percentage. And then there's the maturity of the publishing market itself. Anything new that's growing is going to be growing more than the otherwise mature no-growth market. The question here is:…

Audible alone did over $3 billion last year. "Major publishers have confirmed to Good e-Reader that 1 out of every 10 books sold is in the audio format ... HarperCollins stated that downloadable audio accounted for about 25% of all digital revenue in the recent first three months of 201" https://goodereader.com/blog/audiobooks/good-e-reader-global... Hardly tiny.

Thanks. You missed the point. Good job.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#40

Post by gambler » Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:43 PM UTC

>Amazon, is to book publishing what Facebook and Google are to magazines

Unfortunately, this is a very accurate analogy.

I like listening to audio books and Audible is definitely very convenient, but I am 100% sure that in the not so distant future Amazon will completely destroy the whole publishing ecosystem in US and that will have horrendous effect on the quality of what is being written and on the availability of things to read.

Audible is good, because it's not sustainable. It's good, because it benefits from the infrastructure that would not exist if books were created for audio instead of paper.

If Audible get really popular, it will just become a centralized long-form podcast service. They're already edging that way with "originals".

It's amazing that after seeing this process repeated again and again in the lat couple decades, people still can't predict when it starts to take pace in yet another industry.

Technically, no one stops any book author from hiring a voice actor and then selling the result from their website directly. This doesn't require a middleman. Yet, how many authors do you know that actually do it?