Re: The Electrification of Books

>  Yeah, but people who read (and people who listen to books) know that
>  reading is not listening and listening is not reading. So rather
>  than, "are audio books books or music?" you should be asking, "where
>  do audio book lies on the continuum between books and music?" For me,
>  it's about here.
>
>  books........audio books....................................music

I already covered that issue, Dej. If you missed it, sorry that you
did, but I covered the difference between processing words vs. beat
and pitch and the difference between auditory and visual processing.

>
>  Audio books are closer to books than they are to music, but they are
>  audio, so they are not, strictly speaking, books. But the other
>  question you should ask (and Apple answered it) is "is the market for
>  audio books different than that for print? Are music buyers likely to
>  buy audio books?" The answer to both appears to be a resounding YES.
>  The music market is huge and where "people who listen to books"
>  intersect "people who buy music," the potential is much greater to
>  sell books than just within the smaller market of "people who buy
>  books to read." So it makes sense to sell audio books among people
>  who listen to music.

I disagree that they aren't books, but we could argue that all day, to
no avail. Neither one of us is likely to agree that the other is
right, so I will simply agree to disagree. The information being
passed is still the information from the printed book, just the method
of delivery changed.

Actually, I'd say that there is also a crossover market for people who
read books but cannot visually take them in, for several reasons.
Marketing aside, because that's the way Apple will invariably market,
you've got people who cannot visually access books because of vision
loss but want the experience of the book...and those who use audio
books while working (truck drivers are HUGE buyers for audio books,
for instance) but read paper books when they're not working. My
step-father, for instance, is off the road with an injury right now,
so he's catching up on my books. Shrug.

>
>  So then it follows, we ought to be asking, "does it make sense to
>  sell ebooks there too?" And I would argue that it does, but for
>  totally different reasons. The reason it makes sense for something
>  like iTunes to sell ebooks is that rather than being in a market
>  where people already listen to content, you are in a market here
>  people already have a device to read on.

I'm not arguing any of this. It's a fact. At the same time, with text
to speech programs, e-books ARE audio books. I've used them. I know
others who have, so there is a huge selection of books that can be
made into audio, with the push of a button. Not as smooth as an audio
book recorded to be one, but it works.

Brenna
-- 
http://www.brennalyons.com http://www.myspace.com/brennalyons
All dreams have a meaning, even those that cannot possibly be true.
Mollie hopes so, anyway.  Is she losing her mind or learning her
destiny? FAIRY DREAMS -Mundania Press, LLC.


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