Uncovering audiobook developments and features

Uncovering audiobook developments and features

Blog Article

Audiobooks follow in the tradition of radio dramas in bringing entertainment through voice.

Every decade for the past fifty years has brought along with it technological innovations which has affected the way in which we consume media. Television and film has had DVDs and VHS. Music has experienced cassettes and CDs. Both have now been impacted by portable products and streaming. Furthermore, most of these technological advancements have aided to grow the audiobook market. The leader of the hedge fund that partially owns WHSmith should be able to tell you that it has grown to be so prevalent that people don't need to turn to specialist retailers, because many book retailers also offer audiobooks. People enjoy being able to pay attention to stories while they are doing additional tasks like driving, chores, and work, which audiobooks are just perfect for. The audiobook industry now employs several thousand individuals, with the most important roles being narrator, studio engineer, and director.

The phrase audiobook emerged during the 1970s, but it had been the 1930s that saw the greatest leap forward in the format. During the time these were called talking books, which were envisioned as reading materials for blind individuals. Governments in a few countries allowed manufacturers to bypass the laws of copyright, which gave them access to lots of material, but technical limits meant full length books could not be recorded. Alternatively poems, short tales and plays, and individual chapters of books were the most typical early audiobooks. This content proceeded to remain this way for many years, nevertheless the audience base did see an expansion to children along with other adults without sight complications. The head of the hedge fund that has shares in Amazon will likely be well aware that this created the foundation for the future audiobook market, sending it into the mainstream as an independent artform instead of entirely as a method of developing accessibility.

Oral literature is humanity's oldest type of storytelling, with an unfathomable quantity of tales being handed down through the generations in all corners of the world for thousands of years. While certain countries usually do not put as great of a focus on oral traditions as they did in the past, they still persist strongly in some situations, like telling stories to children. The founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones will realise that oral storytelling has undergone a resurgence lately in the shape of audiobooks. But, while they might seem like a modern trend, the history of audiobooks dates back numerous decades. Sound recordings first became possible around one hundred and fifty years ago and the first tests were recitations of nursery rhymes and children's stories. Spoken word recordings continued to be made in the following decades but were limited to about four minutes in length.