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An audiobook is a recording of the contents of a book read aloud.

Contents 1 Formats 2 History 3 Use, distribution and popularity 3.1 Self-help audiobooks 4 Listening practices 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

Audiobooks are usually distributed on CDs, cassette tapes, or digital formats (e.g., MP3 and Windows Media Audio).

The term "books on tape" is frequently used as a synonym for audiobooks, but cassette tapes are no longer the dominant medium for audiobooks. In 2005, Cassette-tape sales made up roughly 16% of the audiobook market,^[1] with CDs sales accounting for 74% of the market, and downloadable audio books accounting for approximately 9%. In the United States, the most recent sales survey (performed by the Audio Publishers' Association in the summer of 2006 for the year 2005) estimated the industry to be worth 871 million US dollars. Current industry estimates hover at around two billion US dollars per year.

Most new popular titles put out by the major publishers are available in audio book format simultaneously with publication of the hardcover edition. There are approximately 25,000 current titles on cassette, CD, or downloadable format.

Unabridged audiobooks are word for word readings of a book, while abridged audio books have text edited out by the abridger. Audiobooks also come as fully dramatized versions of the printed book, sometimes calling upon a complete cast, music, and sound effects. Each spring, the Audie Awards are given to the top nominees for performance and production in several genre categories.

There are quite a few radio programs serializing books, sometimes read by the author or sometimes by an actor, most of them on the BBC.

In 1931 the Congress established the talking-book program, which was intended to help blind adults who couldn’t read print. This program was called “Books for the Adult Blind Project”. The American Foundation for the Blind developed first talking books in 1932. One year later the first reproduction machine began the process of mass publishing. In 1933, anthropologist J.P. Harrington, drove the length of North America to record oral histories of Native American tribes on aluminum discs using a car battery-powered turntable. Audiobooks preserve the oral tradition of storytelling that J.P. Harrington pursued many years ago.^[2] By 1935, after Congress approved free mailings of audio books to blind citizens, the Books for the Adult Blind Project was in full operation. In 1992 the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) network circulated millions of recorded books to more than 700,000 handicapped listeners. All NLS recordings were created by professionals.

With the development of portable cassette recorders audiotapes had become very popular and by the late 1960s libraries became a source of free audio books on cassettes. Instructional and educational recordings came first followed by self-help tapes, and then by literature and fiction. In 1970 Books on Tape Corporation started rental plans for audio books distribution. The company expanded their services selling their products to libraries. Audio books gained more and more popularity. By the middle of 1980s the audio publishing business grew to several billion dollars a year. The new companies, Recorded Books and Chivers Audio Books, were the first to develop integrated production teams and to work with professional actors. ^[3]

In 1996 Audio Publishers Association established the Audie Awards for audio books, which is an equivalent to the Oscar for the talking books industry. The nominees are announced each year in January, and the winners are announced at a gala banquet in spring, usually in conjunction with BookExpo America. ^[4]

Invention of CDs added to the convenience and flexibility of listening. With the advent of the Internet, broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and portable MP3 players, the popularity of audio books has increased significantly. This growth was reflected with the advent of Audio book download subscription services.

The popularity of portable music players such as the iPod has made audiobooks more accessible to people for portable listening. This has led to a boom in the creation of free audiobooks from Librivox and similar projects that take works from the public domain and enlist volunteers to read them. Audiobooks also can be created with text to speech software, although the quality of synthesised speech may suffer by comparison to voice talent recordings. Audiobooks in the private domain are also distributed online by for-profit companies such as Media Bay, the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), Spoken Word, Naxos, Audioville, Bookstolistento and Audible.com, which in 2006 generated $82.2 million USD in revenue through sales of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word content.^[5]

Audiobooks on CD or cassette are typically more expensive than their hardback equivalents. Downloadable audiobooks tend to cost slightly less than hardbacks but more than their paperback equivalents. For this reason, market penetration of audiobooks is substantially lower than for their printed counterparts despite the high market penetration of the hardware (MP3 and WMA players) and despite the massive market penetration achieved by audio music products. Given the elasticity of demand for audiobooks, and the availability of cheaper alternatives, slow and steady growth in sales seems more likely than a mass market explosion. However, economics are on the side of downloadable audiobooks in the long run. They do not carry mass production costs, do not require storage of a large inventory, do not require physical packaging or transportation and do not face the problem of returns that add to the cost of printed books. It is possible that significant price reductions to customers, whilst eating into profit margins, will be offset by increased volumes of sales. This will increase absolute profits to the industry whilst bringing audiobooks to a wider public.

One of the factors holding back price competition is the fear that low-price audiobooks might simply take business away from more traditional forms of publishing. This is especially significant in the case of publishers that have interests in both print and audiobook publishing. Resellers of audiobooks, such as Audible and Media Bay, who acquire their much of their content from major publishers, must price their content at such a level as to take account of their cost of goods as well as operating costs. On the other hand, audiobook sellers that publish their own content (like the BBC), those that publish solely in audiobook format (such as Blackstone Audio) and "Long Tail" type audiobook publishers that publish lesser known authors (such as bookstolistento) have scope to sell at lower prices, using a "lower-margin-higher-sales" business model. The fact that there are only modest signs of this happening so far, is testament to the immaturity of the audiobook industry in comparison with its printed book cousin.

Audiobooks have been used to teach children to read, and increase reading comprehension. They are also useful for the blind. The National Library of Congress in the U.S. and the CNIB Library in Canada both provide free audiobook library services to the visually impaired; requested books are mailed out (at no cost) to clients.

About forty percent of all audiobook consumption occurs through public libraries, with the remainder served primarily through retail book stores. Library download programs are currently experiencing rapid growth (more than 5,000 public libraries offer free downloadable audio books). According to the National Endowment for the Arts' recent study, "Reading at Risk", audio book listening is one of very few "types" of reading that is increasing general literacy.

Audio books are also used for education. Self-help audio books range from public speaking to learning meditation. Their general goal however is always to develop one's skills to be more happy and/or successful in life. While some focus on a particular skill, others aim to shift the listener's life entirely. Many of these self help audio books can be purchased online.

Audio books are considered a valuable learning tool because of their format. Unlike with traditional books, one can learn from an audiobook while doing other tasks, although it should be noted that this can veer attention from the primary task. Such multitasking is feasible when doing mechanical tasks that do not require much thought and have only a very minor or no chance of an emergency arising. Such tasks include doing the laundry and exercising indoors, among others. They are also popular when driving, as an alternative to radio, and many people listen just to relax or as they drift off to sleep.

Common practices include:

• Replaying: Depending upon one's degree of attention and interest, it is often necessary to listen to segments of an audio book more than once to allow the material to be understood and retained satisfactorily. Replaying may be done immediately, and also after extended periods of time.
• Learning: A person may listen to an audio book (usually an unabridged one) while following along in the actual book. This helps the person to learn words they may not learn correctly if they were to just read the book.
• Notetaking

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• Children's gramophone records
• DAISY Digital Talking Book
• LibriVox
• National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
• Playaway
• Radio drama
• Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic

• Commercial Audio books at the Open Directory Project
• Librivox public domain audiobooks
• Project Gutenberg