Audiobook

The term “audiobook” came into use in the 1970s, when recordings began to be made on audio tapes. As an industry standard, the term was adopted by the Audio Publishers Association in 1994 ^[6] .

The most popular in Russia are the audio versions of classical works. In one of the interviews, Boris Akunin admits ^[7] : “In order to create something of your own, you need to process a huge amount of other people's literary experience. Experience of quality, classic. Now I have found a way to read the classics. I listen to her. "

Today, most bestsellers are immediately published in both paper and audio versions.

Some publishers of audiobooks provide a choice between female or male voices, languages, changes in tone , timbre and intonation of speakers.

With the advent of the DAISY digital format, it has become possible to selectively view chapters and sections of audio books, and even phrases or paragraphs.

Since 1997, the German television and radio company Hessian Broadcasting has published a list of the best audio books every month, and at the end of the year it selects the “audio book of the year”.

There are special prizes for audio literature:

• nomination "Best audiobook" in the framework of the Grammy Music Award ^[2] ;
• (sometimes called an audiobook Oscar ) ^[3]

• “Deutscher Hörbuchpreis” award for the best audiobook of the previous year from the German television and radio company WDR ^[8] .

These ratings provide guidance on the quality of audio books.

There are two ways to create audio books: reading by a living person and the use of speech synthesis programs.

Living Reading

Professional audio books are read by a professional reader, with expression and proper pronunciation . Recording is made in professional studios equipped with special equipment for high-quality voice recording and noise filtering. With further processing, audio special effects (sea noise, street noise, telephone ringing) and musical accompaniment can be added to the audio recording.

The time required to create such audiobooks is high because of the length of reading, the time for editing sound and mixing. For example, the release of the audio series "Le Signe de l'Ogre" (Novelcast Publishing House), lasting 11 hours and 45 minutes, took 5 weeks of recording, then 8 weeks of sound editing and, finally, 4 weeks of mixing ^[9] .

Amateur audio books are recorded by amateur enthusiasts on home equipment. The quality of such audiobooks varies greatly from extremely low (due to the lack of actor training, poor-quality recording equipment) to high, not inferior to professional studio recordings. Such audiobooks are distributed mainly free of charge.

Examples of such audiobooks are the LibriVox , DIY Audiobook Projects. Similar audiobooks are also uploaded to YouTube .

Using a speech synthesizer

Technology for converting electronic text to sound ( Text to Speech ) is also used to create audio books. And although the quality of such audio books is lower, but the speed of creating them is very high and you can do it yourself with the appropriate programs ^[10] , without waiting for the sound of a living reader.

Pros

• The opportunity to get acquainted with the book for people who have vision problems and cannot read (for example, preschoolers).
• More efficient use of time: you can listen while standing in line, when playing sports, when traveling in public transport, when cycling, doing household chores, when doing agricultural work in the country, when walking a dog, etc. ^{[11] [12]}

• No strain on vision .
• The auditory zones of the brain have other associative connections, which allows a new understanding of the listening information. A well-made audio book gives more aesthetic pleasure than its paper version: a pleasant voice, the sound of water, rustling sounds, footsteps, music.
• Low cost audiobooks.
• Compact and portable: audio recordings take up little space, no storage cabinets are required.
• There are human audiences who absorb information better through hearing ^[13] .
• Another opportunity for market promotion of the "paper" version of the book ^[2] .
• Environmental friendliness - wood is not consumed.
• Speed ​​of publication compared to paper versions.
• People learning foreign languages can listen to texts in these languages.
• The possibility of including specially selected background suggestions in audiobooks: to improve memory, improve health, etc. Continuous monotonous work (walking, running) contributes to a change in the state of consciousness, and such suggestions can be effective ^[14] .
• Listening to information is more effective than reading: the brain perceives the spoken word faster than the typed one, and stores it longer. ^[15] .

Cons

• Listening to an audio book requires attention, therefore, it is not compatible with actions requiring high concentration: driving a car, mathematical calculations, filling out documents. It is difficult to concentrate on listening to audio books in public places .
• Bad recipe kills all pleasure. There may be hostility to the voice of the reader, or the one who read the audiobook imposes his perception of the book.
• Not all people learn information well through hearing. As a result of an experiment conducted in one of the schools, it was found that when listening to an audiobook, not all students can remember the names of secondary characters and restore the time sequence of events, although by reading “paper” texts they easily did this with more complex narrative structures works ^[16] .
• The literacy of the population decreases, since the child, for the most part, learns to write correctly through visual contact with text that is absent when listening to audio books ^[17] .
• It is impossible to use images, tables, charts.
• The pronunciation speed of an audiobook is lower than the reading speed with your eyes.
• In audio performances, the text of the original work is often shortened, leaving only key scenes and dialogues. This introduces the work only in general terms, which not all listeners like ^{[18] [3]} .

Background (late 18th - early 19th century)

1877 - Presentation of the phonograph by Thomas Edison . The recommendations on the use of the phonograph included the creation of audio books for visually impaired people ^[18] .

The first sound recordings on the cylinders lasted about 4 minutes. With the advent of phonograph records, the duration increased to 12 minutes, but recording audiobooks was still not practical. ^[19]

Records (early 19th century - 1970s)

• 1931 - The US Congress instructed its library to create “talking” books for the visually impaired ^[3] .
• 1932 - The American Foundation for the Blind publishes the first "talking books" (records), distributes them for free.
• 1948 - A record of "talking" books was organized for military personnel who lost their sight during World War II by members of the New York Public Library .
• Early 1950s - in England, Clarke & Smith released the Talking Book ^[20] , a specialized 24-track tape recorder .
• 1952 - The American company Caedmon Records releases the first commercial audiobook on a long-playing gramophone record with a selection of poems read by author Dylan Thomas and a children's fairy tale, Children's Christmas in Wales.
• 1955 - The American company Listening Library (now Random House ) was created to distribute children's audio books for schools, libraries, and similar specialized markets. Westdeutsche Blindenhörbücherei (West German Library of Audio Books for the Blind) founded in Germany .
• 1961 - under the auspices of the All-Union Society of the Blind (VOS) , work begins on the creation of audio books in the USSR ^[3] . Currently, the Society has 9,000 audio books available only to its members.

Some magazines began to be published with applications in the form of flexible phonograph records: “ Flexipop ” in England, “ Horizon ” and “ Kolobok ” in the USSR.

Recordings on audio tapes (1970s - late 1990s)

In the early 1970s, audio tapes appeared on the market and some libraries began distributing audiobooks recorded on them. Further improvement of technologies (cheap portable players , radio in cars) led to the emergence of a commercial market for audio books ^[21] .

• 1969 - at the Vilnius Electrotechnical Plant "Elfa", the production of the Dyna recorder begins. By order of VOS, it provides a tape speed of 2.38 cm / s for listening to "talking books" ^[22] .
• 1969 - the United States launched the production of audio books for the blind on tape cassettes of a special format, and players for them.
• 1975 - cassette players appear in cars.
• 1979 - The American company Recorded Books first attracts professional actors to record audio books.
• 1984 - The American publishing house Brilliance Audio invented a method for recording on a cassette twice as much ^[21] . There are audio books in stereo recordings.
• Mid-1980s - Western publishers are beginning to buy rights not only to print publications, but also to the audio version of the book. This is becoming a ubiquitous practice: today, with many large publishers, there is an audio recording department.
• 1987 - The United States established the Professional Audio Publishers Association .
• 1996 - in the United States introduced a special Audie Award, which is considered an analogue of the Oscars for manufacturers of audio books.

Digital Recording (Late 1990s - Until Now)

The advent of the Internet , new compressed audio formats, and portable media players have further promoted audio books. There is a steady increase in digital audio books compared to CDs. ^[23]

• 1996 - Assistive Media , a non-profit organization for the distribution of audio recordings over the Internet, was created.
• 2005 - the LibriVox website was created - a non-profit project for creating audio books, the beginning of creating free libraries of audio books. By the end of 2012, the LibriVox website had over 6 million audio books.
• 2006 - The turnover of the global audiobook market is $ 800-850 million (according to the Piper Jaffray agency). The turnover of the Russian market of audiobooks is estimated at 7-8 million dollars (according to the Russian publisher Ardis).
• 2014 - The Deyan Institute of Voice Artistry and Technology opened a vocal art and audiobook technology in California .

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to Audiobook
• Video book
• Audible
• Project: Audio Articles

• V. D. Chernyak , M.A. Chernyak . Audiobook // Mass literature in concepts and terms. - M .: Nauka, Flint, 2015 .-- S. 12-14. - 250 p. - ISBN 978-5-9765-2128-5 .

• Audiobooks in the Open Directory Project Link Directory (dmoz)