Readers read books (I know, it’s obvious, but bear with me) and I believe the acceptance of audiobooks stumbles over the need to switch modes between dealing with a physical product to dealing with discs or abstract digital files. It is the same stumbling block podcasting has had: the technology gets in the way of the user experience. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

One company has come up with a possible solution, one that I have been thinking for some time is a viable form of the audiobook product.

PlayawayDigital have taken the audiobook and packaged it in a no-fuss, independent physical product – just like a miniature book. Earbuds plug in to the side and there are the basic controls you would expect from an audio device on the back. No searching a device for the right chapters, no having that device messing up the order of those chapters, no synchronising, no disc swapping – no messing around whatsoever. Plus, the product retains the product’s branding (i.e. book cover).

The most significant aspect of this, I feel, will be a higher level of consumer acceptance. It is just like a book. It can sit on shelves, pop into a handbag, be loaned to others – and will ultimately appear on the shelves of charity shops.

I not only hope the publishing industry will take up this form of audiobook distribution, but also that there might be a way for independent audiobook creators to distribute their content in this way. That’s a little optimistic, I’ll admit, but providing none of the big publishing players nail PlayawayDigital down to tight agreements, or do not buy the company outright, we can still hope.

The publishing industry needs this form of audiobook product to truly break the market. I, for one, welcome it.

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TABLE RAPPERS – PERSISTENT SPIRIT

CHAPTER 15

Inside the house of Mrs. Benson, Keynes gets gets the chance to take a look around.

Story running time: 23 minutes

Available from TableRappers.com or here:

Or you can listen right here

If you have a podcast or a website, please play the audio promo and promote Persistent Spirit. Send me your promo and I will play it in return. TableRappers audio promos

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A minute later and a very unusual sound wafts through the flat. This is what was outside:

We have no idea why, but the Salvation Army brass band turned up, played a few tunes on the green (positioning themselves quite symmetrically, I must point out), then vanished. It was close to a military exercise in guerilla band playing.

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