Audiobooks News

Unabridged Audio Books

January 21st, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Unabridged audio books are complete, word for word, readings of books from cover to cover, as opposed to the abridged type which are shortened versions of the books in question. These unabridged books are often dramatised rather than simply read and may include more than 1 reader, sound effects and a musical background. Unabridged audiobooks of this type offer a completely different way to enjoy novels and provide the listener with a completely immersive experience. The audio book industry even has it’s own awards which include categories such as performance, production and soundtrack and cover many different genres of audio books.

Until recently it has been more common for audio books to be available in abridged versions rather the preferable unabridged format. An unabridged audio book can consist of many cd’s or tapes, so the cost of production and the resulting cost to the consumer has previously been prohibitively high. Technological advances have now reduced the costs of production to a point where unabridged audio books on cd are now affordable and consumers no longer have to make do with abridged versions.

The biggest change, however, has come with the advent of the downloadable audio book which has considerably lower costs and allows for a much broader range of material to be made available in the format of unabridged audio books.

Increasing Demand for Unabridged Audio Books from the iPod Generation

The worldwide boom in personal MP3 players, especially the iPod, has opened up a whole new market for the unabridged audio book. People who have never previously considered listening to an audio book are realising that they can do more than listen to music on their MP3 players! Whether it be for learning or pleasure people are finding the enormous benefits of being able to listen to an audio book wherever they go - in the car, at the gym or whilst doing the housework. Demand for unabridged audiobooks is at an all time high and continues to rise.

Audiobooks may be found in a variety of different formats and quality levels to suit different tastes and budgets. There are a large number of classic books which are in the public domain, this means that anyone can make a recording of the work and sell it without paying royalties or asking permission. This has resulted in a new industry producing unabridged audiobooks of public domain works, these range from books read by a computer through readings by amateurs to more professional productions. Make sure you know which type of production you are buying before you pay.

At the other end of the spectrum are the lavishly produced unabridged audio books of bestselling novels, which will usually include well known actors, stereo sound effects, an appropriate soundtrack and all round high production values right down to the packaging and extras.

With all this talk of production values, sound effects and actors you’d be forgiven for thinking that the audio book industry revolves solely around novels. This is far from the case as there is a potentially much larger market for unabridged audio books as learning tools, whether it be language learning, children’s education, business guides or any other area of knowledge which can be taught through the medium of an audio book. In the online business market alone there are thousands of business guides available in audio format, some of these can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars and many are only available as unabridged audio books.