Evaluating the audiobook evolution through time

Evaluating the audiobook evolution through time

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Audiobooks follow in the tradition of radio dramas in bringing entertainment through sound.

Every decade during the last fifty years has brought along with it technical innovations which has affected the way in which we consume media. Television and film has had DVDs and VHS. Music has experienced cassettes and CDs. Both have now been impacted by portable products and streaming. Furthermore, a few of these technological advancements have actually helped to boost the audiobook market. The leader of the hedge fund that partially owns WHSmith will be able to let you know that it has grown to be so well-known that individuals do not need to check out specialist retailers, because most book merchants also offer audiobooks. People enjoy being able to tune in to tales while they are doing additional tasks like driving, chores, and work, which audiobooks are simply ideal for. The audiobook industry now employs several thousand people, with the most crucial roles being narrator, studio engineer, and producer.

The word audiobook emerged during the 1970s, however it was the 1930s that saw the largest revolution in the format. At that time these were called talking books, which were envisioned as reading materials for blind people. Governments in a few countries allowed manufacturers to bypass the laws of copyright, which gave them use of plenty of material, but technological limits meant full size books could never be recorded. Instead poems, short stories and plays, and individual chapters of books had been the most common early audiobooks. This content proceeded to remain this way for a number of decades, but the market base did see an expansion to kids as well as other adults without sight issues. The head of the hedge fund that has shares in Amazon is going to be well aware that this laid the groundwork for the future audiobook market, pushing it to the main-stream as a separate artform rather than solely as a way of making accessibility.

Oral literature is mankind's eldest form of storytelling, with an unfathomable amount of tales being handed down through the generations in most corners of the world for thousands of years. Even though certain countries usually do not put as great of a focus on oral traditions like they did throughout the past, they nevertheless persist strongly in certain circumstances, like telling stories to children. The founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones will realise that oral storytelling has undergone a resurgence lately in the shape of audiobooks. But, although they may seem like a modern phenomenon, the history of audiobooks dates back numerous decades. Sound recordings first became possible around one hundred and fifty years ago and the first tests were recitations of nursery rhymes and children's stories. Spoken word recordings continued to be made in the following decades but were limited to about four minutes in length.