Talk:Audiobook/Archive 1

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Some Sites

Hi. There are some alternatives that would help if you need to convert some text file to audio. I know the site ServiciosPDF --- PDF - Text - Audio that help you to do it.

Dear unsigned editor, that is not an audiobook seller's site, but rather a text-to-speech (TTS) site, which is not the same as an audiobook. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 22:32, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

German version

The german version of this substub is a full article! Can someone translate the german into the english Wiki? Eric Herboso 02:12, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Hi Eric! This is Marietta from Germany - I think it's a lot of German-specific stuff in it - so i'm afraid that many information may not help much for an Englisch audiobook-article. And my English is not as good to translate. But I am also very interested to learn more about Audiobook-history in USA or GB or wherever you are. Greetings, deutsch Benutzer:Marietta --85.73.35.254 16:21, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
Marietta, my name's Marcelo and I'm replying to you from Argentina to tell you that you made a grammatical mitake when you said "MANY information". It should be "MUCH information" or, even better, "much of the information on the article..." Greetings. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 11:50, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

History

I was surprised to see no mention of spoken-word vinyl, which occasionally presented true audiobooks and certainly major progenitors (Shakespeare performances, etc.). Some history in general--the old, bland-looking reads found in libraries of the '70s before books on tape hit big commercially in the 80s. I don't have the knowledge to write on the subject myself however, just anecdotal wanderings of a kid in those days. --24.33.28.52 02:46, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Books on records were released going back into at least the 1950's. That 1975 reference must be wrong.

Nettyboo 13:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Check out the article Spoken word album on Wikipedia. AlbertSM (talk) 03:01, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Proposed move to "Audiobook"

As of September 2006, "audiobook" returns 15 million Google hits, whereas "audio book" returns only 6 million. I therefore propose that this page be moved to Audiobook. --Amit 20:20, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I have only seen this spelled as "audiobook" - is this a neologism and another case of making new words by merging two others? MDCollins (talk) 13:00, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
I currently make it 10.8m for audiobook vs. only 1.4m for audio book. I'll request a move on WP:RM. –EdC 22:18, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
Done, see below. –EdC 22:30, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Since the move has been proposed and approved I would suggest deleting the parethesical ("or audio book") since, as shown, "audiobook" (as a single word) is more popular than "audio book" (two separate words). I also believe that the sentence which states DVDs are an audiobook format should be removed, because, as I explained earler, I only saw MP3CD audiobooks, not DVD audiobooks. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 22:34, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

Vendor list

I'm removed the spam magnet vendor list section from the article. There seems to be no criteria for inclusion, and most of the links were red. There are several categories which seem to duplicate the function of such a list: Audio books, Digital libraries, or Book websites. The external links list would seem to have several commercial/promotional links as well. Kuru talk 16:42, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, since there's already a DMOZ category and since every other link just seemed to be an audio book provider, I've trimmed the list down to that. Please see WP:EL. Kuru talk 16:50, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Audio Book Mega Shop

I believe the Audio Book Mega Shop(www.audiobook-megashop.com) should be linked in the audio book sections of this site.Audio Book Mega Shop has a huge variety of top quality audio books for the whole family. some of the categories covered are Arts & Drama,Foreign Language study,Health & Recreation,religion & spiritual,Business,biography's,history,self help,fiction and many more subjects in fact over 5000 titles are being regularly added to. Great source for education and relaxation it is a growing trend and todays authors are not only releasing there new titles in book form but also in the audio book versions as well.

(Ozedude 23:24, 19 January 2007 (UTC)).

I respectfully disagree. The article is intended to describe the concept of an audio book and related topics, not to act as a directory of commercial links. The link you've proposed seems only to advertise and promote a specific entity, and does nothing to improve or add to the article. I would suggest adding your link to the DMOZ directory already linked in the article, or could you read wikipedia's external link guidelines at WP:EL and perhaps restate your proposal with that in mind? Thanks! Kuru talk 00:44, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Newer Sales Stats Reflected

Using the APA's research http://www.audiopub.org/i4a/pages/Index.cfm?pageid=3308 I modified some of the outdated info regarding the sales percentages of the different formats.

(freeb26 17:24, 8 Feb 2007 (EDT)).

Clean up of commercialism and advertising

I have cleaned up some of the more obvious "advertising" in this article. (Nigel Farringdon) 10:10, 3 Nov 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.83.202 (talk)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was PAGE MOVED per discussion below. -GTBacchus(talk) 06:06, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Audio book → Audiobook — Significantly wider usage per WP:GOOGLE (currently, 10.8m vs. 1.4m). EdC 22:27, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Survey

Add  # '''Support'''  or  # '''Oppose'''  on a new line in the appropriate section followed by a brief explanation, then sign your opinion using ~~~~. Please remember that this survey is not a vote, and please provide an explanation for your recommendation.

Survey - in support of the move

  1. Support - per nom. –EdC 22:29, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
  2. Support - per nom and also because I see it in bookstores as Audiobooks, but this really is a website/web site type thing. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 06:01, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Survey - in opposition to the move

Discussion

Add any additional comments:
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Just wanted to state that I also support the move from "audio book" to "audiobook", though I got here too late to participate in the above vote. —Lowellian (reply) 18:46, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Definition

If an audiobook is the recording of the contents of a book read aloud, then the pre existence of a book in paper is neccesary. Is that ok? If it is, an audiobook can't be the recordings of oral literature. What do you think?? Magdalena B. 15:00, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree with you on that --Fandelasketchup (talk) 22:37, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

Why would anyone delete this article?

  • Audiobooks are important for bilnd people who do not read Braille, and for many of those who do.
  • Audiobooks are important for dyslexic people who cannot read long books easily.
  • Audiobooks are important for children who do not yet read.
  • (Audiobooks are nice for people who like to hear stories while driving.)
  • Audiobooks are sold all around the globe for many decades.
  • Audiobooks are given by libraries for the bind and dyslexic all around the globe for many decades.
  • (Wikipedia projects in 30 other languages find this article important)

Why would anyone like to delete this article? Eddau (talk) 13:25, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

I deleted the "audio book" (two separate words) reference and replaced "DVDs" with "MP3CDs" --Marceki111 (talk) 08:37, 3 September 2012 (UTC)
I was the one to suggest the deletion due to copyright on the cassette tape image from THE MAURITIUS COMMAND by Patrick O'Brian and read by Patrick Tull, that image is owned by Recorded Books, LLC., and, in turn, that company is now owned by Simply Audioboks, Inc. at www.simplyaudiobooks.com, the user who wrote this article did NOT have the necessary permissions to use the cassette tape image.
I want to note, as well, that, after merging with Simply Audiobooks, Recorded Books discontinued both Direct to Consumer and International sales, the former being done by the new company, Simply Audiobooks, and the latter... well, God knows when Simply Audiobooks will sell worldwide.--Marceki111 (talk) 08:37, 3 September 2012 (UTC)
As I explained 12 days ago, I am nominating this article for deletion because the editor who wrote it did not have permission from Simply Audiobooks, now owner of Recorded Books, LLC, to use the cassette recording image of THE MAURITIUS COMMAND. Using text or even images without citing the source is considered copyright violation, in this case this editor is violating both Simply Audiobooks and Recorded Books, LLC copyright. --Marceki111 (talk) 19:24, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
I would ask that the editor who wrote this article read Wikipedia's policy on using third-party images without permission. --Marceki111 (talk) 19:24, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
I've removed your AfD tag from the article, are you claiming the entire article is a copyright violation, or just the image? If its just the image, you may request deletion of it at Commons:, where the image is hosted. I'm not sure if the producer can assert copyright over an image of a caset labeled with basic text, but if thats the only concern, the place to raise it is in a commons deletion discussion. If there is copyrighted text in the article, please point it out so it can be dealt with. Monty845 00:10, 16 September 2012 (UTC)
As I said before, I was claiming the image is in copyright violation (read my explanation on one of my posts which starts with "As I explained..."); Furthermore, I would like to ask how do I go about suggesting the guys at Commons: delete the image? I have never been there before, that's why I'm asking. --Marceki111 (talk) 09:57, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
I would like to nominate this article for deletion on the grounds it lacks any sources for verification (see the numerous "citation needed" tags?) Marceki111 (talk) 14:34, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Audiobook charities in the UK

Two charities are currently listed (Listening Books and RNIB's Talking Books). There is a least one other notable charity of which I've been a lifetime member http://www.calibre.org.uk I have however not yet been able to find a listing on the web that include all three of them. Please could Calibre Audio Library either be added or the section reworked to avoid favouring these two and perhaps including organisations in other countries? Jbuller (talk) 23:10, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Please read WP:EL --Fandelasketchup (talk) 15:11, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

J.P. Harrington/Books for the Adult Blind Project

Under the heading "United States" there is a paragraph dealing with the Books for the Adult Blind Project, followed by a paragraph talking about J.P. Harrington. The J.P. Harrington paragraph includes more about the Books for the Adult Blind Project, and some of that information seems to be repeated (in a paraphrased form) from the previous paragraph. I can't see any link between J.P. Harrington and the Books for the Adult Blind Project, and I think the J.P. Harrington bit should be a completely separate paragraph.68.97.202.187 (talk) 14:13, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Distribution and Popularity

Taken from the last paragraph of the Distribution and Popularity section:

However, there are certain economies of scale that favor downloadable audiobooks. Downloadable audiobooks do not carry mass production costs, do not require storage of a large inventory, do not require physical packaging or transportation and even if "returned" do not require a cost of physical return or destruction/disposal. If such economies were passed on to customers, unit profit margins would be reduced but sales volumes would increase. It is not known what effect this would have on book sales in other formats.

I'm not conversant with Wikipedia's policy on original research or opinions of editors being added to pages, but that paragraph seems to be treading close to original research or personal opinion.68.97.202.187 (talk) 14:23, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

I am a member of the audiobook industry, and I agree that the paragraph is opinion and possibly misleading, especially the statement "If such economies were passed on to customers, unit profit margins would be reduced but sales volumes would increase." That section should be removed. HappyListener (talk) 19:59, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

It looks like it was already taken out? (if not I would have removed it as unsourced). For future reference, being a member of an industry does not present any significant conflict of interest concerns, unless you worked for a trade association whos mission was to advocate for the industry (or something similar). CorporateM (Talk) 02:55, 18 October 2014 (UTC)

Yes, it looks like that entire section has now been removed. And thanks for clarifying about the COI policy. HappyListener (talk) 16:02, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Michael Rye first audiobook

Regarding this claim:

The first recording of a "book" was of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Michael Rye in 1969.[1] It included excerpts from the autobiography, Poor Richard's Almanack, The Dogood Papers, and other shorter works.[2]
  1. ^ "Voiceover actor Michael Rye dies at 94, Bridged the generations from radio to videogame work". Variety Magazine. 2012-09-25. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
  2. ^ Christopher J. Murrey (1 January 2002). Benjamin Franklin: Biographical Overview and Bibliography. Nova Publishers. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-59033-384-6.

This is a huge claim that is very loosely sourced. The 1969 date is original research, the actual date is likely much earlier (1956 is the earliest edition of Autobiography of Franklin I can find). But 1956 still doesn't make sense as the Library of Congress had been recording books for the blind since the early 1930s. For example I am in possession of an audiobook edition of The Great Gatsby narrated by Alexander Scourby from 1953 (which happens to be better than modern ones IMO). If Rye has any claim to narrating the first audiobook, it would have to be from the 1930s, probably the early part of the decade as part of the Talking Books (Books for the Blind) program, and I can't find evidence of that. -- GreenC 01:16, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

And I think the 1 January 2002 date on the Google Books page cited above GreenC's comment is also original research. Please take a moment to read over Wikipedia's policy on verifiability. --Marce 19:35, 16 April 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fandelasketchup (talk • contribs)
Click on "About this book" on the left side of the page to see the book's publication date. -- GreenC 14:37, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Question about the Mad Men citation

The "In popular culture" section of this article opens with the following sentence:"In the Mad Men (season 6) episode, 'The Man With a Plan', Bob Benson was shown listening to the audio version of Frank Bettger's book How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, on a phonograph in his office." Now, my question is: how many records did the audiobook consist of? I mean, nowadays most audiobooks consist of anywhere from 4 to 50 CDs or from 1 to 4 MP3CDs. That's why I was asking. --Marce 11:43, 30 November 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fandelasketchup (talk • contribs)

I've never watched Mad Men but I believe it's set in the 1960s. There were LP records by then so about 25 minutes per side or 50 minutes per record. The book is about 192 pages which would be about 7-9 hours long depending on how fast the narrator talks, and if it's abridged. Most audiobooks prior to the 1970s (really mid 1980s with the invention of longer play cassettes) were abridged. I checked WorldCat and sure enough there is a 1962 LP version of the book so it's a real thing. -- GreenC 14:33, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

I would like to change one word in the article

The current opening paragraph of the "1996 to present" secction opens with this paragraph:"With the advent of the Internet, broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and portable media players, the popularity of audiobooks has increased significantly during the late 1990s and 2000s." However, I would like to replace the word "advent" with either the word "rise" or the word "advantage", because "advent" can lead readers to think of the Christian holiday. What do you think? --Fandelasketchup (talk) 20:13, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

"Rise" would be good. Advent is wrong anyway since most of the technologies were invented prior to the 90s. -- GreenC 15:50, 18 December 2014 (UTC)
I changed "rise" to "invention" because, even though I do know it was invented in the 1970s, it was not until the 1990s when it became popular, so I took it as a modern invention, and also because in the newly edited paragraph I replaced a long list of technologies with a reference to the Apple iPod, which did not "rise", but was rather "invented". --Fandelasketchup (talk) 20:23, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

Merge

Full cast audio book is a newly created article which merely defines a type of audiobook and then lists several examples. I'm not even convinced that "Full cast audio book" is a well-used term, as opposed to "theatrical presentation" or "dramatization" or something else. In any case, the current and potential content of this new article would fit logically into Audiobook#Formats, where the craetor of this new article has already added a wikilink to his/her new article.— TAnthonyTalk 00:17, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

  • Agreed. And a plain list of "examples" isn't a good idea, there are thousands of such works and it becomes a spam trap for everyone promoting their work or favorite book. Examples with a secondary source can be worked into the text, actually saying something about these works that is relevant to "full cast audiobook" or whatever we call it. "Full cast" seems to be what they are calling it these days. Dramatization can mean something else like a 4hr dramatization of War and Peace. Theatrical means a theater company, which exist (like the "LA Theatre Works" series). All these are separate concepts. Probably they can be worked into the same section, call it "Multi-narrator audiobooks". -- GreenC 00:56, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
  • Consider this. Audio books recorded with more than one narrator is a format that seems to have experienced a resurgence 1) because of mobile technology (especially connected cars), and 2) Neil Gaiman's interest in adapting his novels into the audio drama format. Looking at the audio drama page, and reading articles by major publications makes it seem as if the audio drama is primarily a British phenomenon, promoted by BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra. Neil Gaiman is at the same time familiar with that community and with the increasing demand for audio stories in the U.S, so he is writing novels and making them available as audio books performed and recorded by a cast of actors. Most importantly though, fans of this format, popularized by one author, are searching the web for full cast audio books - Great books with full cast productions., Is there a list of dramatized (full cast) audio books?, Audiobook full cast. I am a fan of this format, and I discovered that I can find full cast recordings when I search Audible with the term full cast. I believe that is one of the main reasons the individuals in these posts are using the term full cast audio book. Would the audiobook page appear in searches for the term full cast audio book if the articles are merged? I'm just trying to make it easier for fans of this format to find information about the format and to find quality recordings. Near Future ChicagoTalk 04:20, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
"when I search Audible with the term full cast" .. yeah that's the term they use for multiple narrators. Sometimes. More recently they are just listing everyone by name right in the narrator field. It's kind of random. You can create a redirect yes so a search would end up in the right place. -- GreenC 04:53, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
Henrys708, Full cast audio book would redirect to Audiobook#Formats, and the entirety of your article could fit there. Well, except for the list of works. Multi-cast audiobook dramatizations have been around as long as audiobooks have, so such a list is potentially endless. And no one should be looking for "quality recordings" at Wikipedia, it is neither a list farm nor a retail outlet.— TAnthonyTalk 05:27, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
TAnthony, Merging sounds fine to me, especially since it should make the article easier to find when searching the web. As for the list, I was only trying to distinguish titles that have an audience, or will be around for awhile. I got the idea from this list On-line audio drama in the audio drama article. I recognize a lot of these links, but I've never heard of others, so I consider this a source for finding new audio dramas. I don't expect much, just links that I didn't already know about. To me a list like this is very helpful. Near Future ChicagoTalk 05:55, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
The list is not a good idea. Wikipedia is definitely not "a source for finding new audio dramas" or for advertising works. Also we can't create "Henrys708's list of books he didn't know about".. the article is read by thousands of people each month. -- GreenC 13:11, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
So is the On-line audio drama list a bad idea? Or is it different somehow? Near Future ChicagoTalk 03:48, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
Yeah that's not good. The relevant guideline is WP:EL and WP:NOTLINK. All those links could be removed because there are two links at the top which are directory websites for audio dramas. -- GreenC 16:20, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
I understand the reason for not wanting to promote "products", wikipedia is not a catalog, but opposing a list like this one - On-line audio drama -is taking that policy to the point of rejecting information people seek about a topic. Neil Gaiman, for instance, is an author, but there are articles about his novels and audio adaptations of those novels. These are products. He is selling products, and I'm sure he appreciates the effort that's been put into those articles. There are places on the web, like wikipedia, that contain information about products that are not catalogs. This is why all of the links in my list direct you to Goodreads pages. Sure, Amazon owns Goodreads, but the pages themselves contain information about the products - books - as well as reader reviews and links to places to buy the products. I guess the bottom line for me is agreeing that this article - full cast audio books - should be merged into the audiobook article. Is this something I should do, or is it something someone more established in wikipedia has the authority to do? Thanks. Near Future ChicagoTalk 07:33, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
I won't interfere with Radio_drama#On-line_audio_drama but if it was brought to the attention of WP:External links/Noticeboard they would almost certainly delete it immediately. It's really out of line of normal standards. Someone probably will eventually delete it. Anyway, you can copy the content here and I will help with any integration if needed. Then replace the old article with a single line: #REDIRECT[[Audiobook#sectioname]] which will create a redirect here. -- GreenC 20:01, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
Green Cardamom, copy the article without the list? The rest seems pretty straight forward. Near Future ChicagoTalk 08:42, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

I think I did that correctly. I wasn't sure about the list, so I left it. Thanks. Near Future ChicagoTalk 11:31, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

Actually no, you don't just cut and paste the entire article as-is, because you're duplicating categories, the ref section etc. But I just fixed it.— TAnthonyTalk 23:49, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

Now I see, merge really means eliminate completely. Thanks. Near Future ChicagoTalk 12:56, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Is that sarcasm? I left your description of the format and eliminated the list of examples. As it is, the remaining information has no direct citations, which is a problem. If you can find external (non-retail) sources, like reviews, discussing the notability of specific works, perhaps they may be restored. I also moved the cited facts about the increased prevalence of audio books to the proper section, as these were not specific to the full cast works. The fact that only a couple of sentences remain of your article just shows that most of it was redundant or trivial. Thanks.— TAnthonyTalk 01:28, 24 July 2015 (UTC)
I may regret suggesting this, but though I know these full cast recordings have existed for a long time, there are certainly a lot less of them than there are one-narrator audiobooks. I actually wouldn't object to a standalone List of full cast audiobooks or something ONLY if it turns out that the list is not, in fact, endless. The caveat is that it would need citations for notability and some kind of documentation that the list/criteria is finite. Is there any research you can do? Green Cardamom may object LOL.— TAnthonyTalk 01:38, 24 July 2015 (UTC)
The list will be indiscriminate. A search of "full cast" at WorldCat filtered for audiobooks finds 4,056 results. And that's just the ones that use the words "full cast", many more simply list the narrator names. And every week there's probably 10 or so news ones (432 added in 2014). It's beyond the scope of Wikipedia to be a product database. WorldCat has it covered. -- GreenC 01:54, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

Another mundane or routine task

Some people listen to audio books while walking the dog, as they have little time to read or listen otherwise. Unfortunately, I know of no source to cite for this. — Anita5192 (talk) 06:30, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

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Question

Couldn't we include in the article short (30-second) samples of different audiobooks the way it's done for commercial songs? I mean, if you look up any song whatsoever, if you go to either the "Background" or "Composition" section of the article there you will most likely find a 30-second sample of the song in question. Could we not do the same for this article? --Fandelasketchup (talk) 21:34, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

AudiobookStand.com

AudiobookStand.com should be added to this search (Audio Books), Audiobooks as well under "online audio book services" and "External Links".

AudiobookStand is the direct to consumer division of Brilliance Audio, the nation's largest independent Audiobook Publisher. We sell Cassettes, Compact Discs, MP3-CD's and Downloads. Our homepage can be found at www.audiobookstand.com our download site is www.audiobookstanddl.com

205.217.72.98 18:40, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Please read WP:EL -- zzuuzz (talk) 15:59, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
I agree with you, zzuuzz, but, unfortunately, the site referred to in the "Summary" section and the heading cannot be added anymore as it has been shut down and replaced with [1] --Fandelasketchup (talk) 15:07, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
Might have something to do with the fact that the comment is 14 years old? Chaheel Riens (talk) 16:07, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

17 discs for an 18-wheeler

The Harry Potter 7 will be published on 17 (seventeen!) audio CD discs. Me thinks MP3 format was invented over 12 years ago and even vacuum cleaners can play it back nowadays. Is it still common to issue audiobooks in such obsolete, cumbersome format? I mean you can bet 100:1 that one or more of those 17 CDs will get lost in a few years time, no matter how careful the owner is and render the set unusable. Especially that so many audiobook users are long-haul truck drivers wishing to pass time on endless aussie roads, who move a lot around and thus can lose things easily. 82.131.210.162 13:22, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

The Order of the Phoenix is 21 CDs at 29 Hours (UK Version). I have the 4 most recent Potter books on CD, and I have yet to lose a single CD, even after countless roadtrips, and listening to them all countless times. Also, if you are worried about losing them, invest in a digital audio player (e.g. iPod). Then, when at home, you can rip the CDs, and put them on your iPod. Another practice, is to download the Audiobooks via an internet music service (e.g. iTunes). That way, there is no hard copy to lose. Donnyj (talk) 00:03, 16 January 2008 (UTC)Donnyj
Watch your spelling, Donnyj! It's more common to have the word Internet capitalized, even in the middle of a sentence, as opposed to languages like Spanish, in which it's okay to leave it in lowercase. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 15:15, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
Also, "audio CD disc" is redundant, as the "D" in "CD" already stands for the word "disc", unsigned editor. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 15:15, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Spoken book and talking book

Could a reference to the these terms be added? They appear in Google, and even the Library of Congress referes to Talking books. Magdalena B. 20:36, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, you could change the "redirect" text to point to that if you want, but you'll need at least two reliable sources because your word alone doesn't count. Also, the correct form of the first thing you mentioned already has an article all of its own: Spoken-word album --Fandelasketchup (talk) 11:54, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

Opening

Is the opening section appropriate? 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.[1]

That is similar to audiobooks. What do you think?

JBFrenchhorn (talk) 08:04, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

No, I don't think it's appropiate, as is not the section citing DVDs as a format for audiobooks, 'cause I have not seen a DVD audiobook, rather MP3CD audiobooks. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 15:16, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

"Congress" as used in a paragraph

I want to challenge the following paragraph which may mislead readers:"In 1931, 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 the 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, Books for the Adult Blind Project was in full operation. In 1992 the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Challenged (NLS) network circulated millions of recorded books to more than 700,000 Physically challenged listeners. All NLS recordings were created by professionals.". Since many countries, including Argentina, my homeland, have Congresses, it is important to know which Congress you are talking about. I know that I took the sentence from the "United States" section, but for other countries which have their own Congresses this may not be so obvious, so you have to include wording like "the Congress of the United States" (and I prefer to use "the Congress of the United States" as opposed to "American" because the latter would mean "all the Congresses in the American continent" and you do not want to mean that, do you? And another reason is to keep in line with the Pledge of Allegiance which alludes "to the flag of the United States of America".) --Fandelasketchup (talk) 22:47, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

Not only do I want to change that, but I also do believe that, if "talking books" as the program calls them, were originally designed for use solely by the blind, they would not (and could not) have gained the wide reception modern audiobooks have among the general public. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 15:54, 12 November 2020 (UTC)
Furthermore, I do believe that, in the aforementioned text, "audio book" (two separate words) should be changed to "audiobook" (one word) per nom and because a search for "audio book" (two separate words) on Google returns fewer results than a search for "audiobook" (one word) as explained in the discussion on the "Requested move" section above. --Fandelasketchup (talk) 22:48, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

British audiobooks

Regarding this content removed as unreliable source:

To save costs and quickly build inventories of audiobooks, Britain and the United States shared recordings in their catalogs. The first British recording has been identified as Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, read by Anthony McDonald in 1934.[2]

References

  1. ^ https://www.audible.com/ep/brilliance
  2. ^ Rubery, Matthew. "Britain's First Talking Book: An Update". Audiobook History. Retrieved 12 August 2021.

This might be researched further for reliable sources to confirm, not only the first book, but the sharing of catalogs which should be sourceable somewhere. -- GreenC 15:21, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

The author of this "unreliable source" is the expert on the history of the audiobook, Matthew Rubery, Professor of Modern Literature at London University. He is cited several times already in the article. I don't know of a more reliable source on this subject.--Jburlinson (talk) 16:21, 12 August 2021 (UTC)
Oh great! Didn't notice that. I'll restore it, should include the probably qualifier. -- GreenC 16:37, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Sexist paragraph

I would like to challenge this paragraph as completely sexist towards women and children, as they too can also perfectly be perfect listeners:"One early listener complained that he would need a wheelbarrow to carry around talking books recorded on discs with such limited storage capacity." --Fandelasketchup (talk) 22:07, 23 August 2021 (UTC)

"story books"

A user from Leeds, UK is using various IPs with long gaps between each edit to change the first sentence to read "story book".

They also add random wikilinks at the same time. It's an odd pattern. Anyway, this is not a normal term for audiobooks outside of India or maybe some regional UK usage. It derives from children's books being the most common usage of audio traditionally in certain places, since children are too young to read on their own. But this is no longer the case, adults are by far the most common consumers, audiobooks are not limited to or even primarily for young children "story books". The term is so uncommon it doesn't even exist on Wikipedia. -- GreenC 18:38, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

They are still at it, this time making their UK bias explicit. -- GreenC 21:56, 17 February 2022 (UTC)

How to stop overthinking

Voice concern 2402:4000:B18C:604D:4AD3:6754:7D29:2C92 (talk) 20:13, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

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