Publishing houses or software houses?
Lisa McCloy-Kelley, director of ebooks and innovation at Penguin-Randon House (the largest publishing house in the world), explained well how does it work today a publishing house. Lisa is a regular guest at the initiatives of theIDP extension (International Digital Publishing Forum), the organization that sets the technology standards of digital publishing and there's a lot to learn from listening to her.
A publishing house Modern not post more books; this thing happened in the twentieth century. A publishing house develop content. It is a'organisers' activities rather different from that of publishing books, one of the possible destinations of a content, sometimes not even the most important from a business point of view. There is also awareness of this evolution among Italian book publishers.
In unsuspecting times Matteo Hoepli stated that publishing houses will have to turn in software houses. Nothing more prophetic and challenging. In short the very concept of post will be subsumed into that of tech until you become onedeclination. This union, which can be intimidating because technology undermines established structures, will offer the creativeness new and unthinkable opportunity. The symbiosis between technology and creativity, which engine the human development future, is the thesis of the latest effort by Walter Isaacson, The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution that we recommend reading or listening to (17 hours and 28 minutes). A symbiosis that was already at the origins of everything: it wasn't Ada Lovalace, the woman who invented software, daughter of the romantic poet Lord Byron?
From book to content
In light of what is happening with new media, a content can really be like the Amazon forest: a resource Fromenormous riches just waiting to be discovery, extracted e developed intelligently, unlike what happened with the real Amazon.
Without going to bring up the many secondary derivations of a content narrative or non-narrative such as the screenplay, merchandising, product placement, video game, live events and other immensely lucrative spin-offs, a casa editrice canto direct a content at least verse five different natural outlets, which are as follows.
1) the libraries , supermarkets where the artifact works book, an old and reassuring acquaintance;
2) the e-reader (Kindle, Kobo and Nook) that offer a solution low-tech which resolves to one mere and not intimidatingdigital replica of the book which, however, isimmediate use and can be placed in a mobile bookcase;
3) i tablets and large format smartphones which can accommodate the same content better if enriched with audio, video and elementary multimedia;
4) the uses for iOS, Android e Windows Phone where some components of the content can be developed in interactive activities and amusements;
5) any device able reproduce un mp3 files (perhaps the most universal file format) where the content wasregistered e stored to be heard when needed.
Below we will try to explain why the latter destinazione, from the marginal he was a few years ago, he is becomingmainstream. It truly is the time for podcasts, audiobooks, and audiojournals.
Radio: all podcasts
David Carr, the NYTimes media columnist, took up half a page of the newspaper to weave the praise of the podcasting and to apologize to readers for not immediately understanding the potential of the medium. The "Financial Times” spoke of “podcast renaissance, a format that has been around for a decade, but which is benefiting from a resurgence of interest from consumers, investors and advertisers”.
Recently Amazon he bought Rooftop Average one platform, which produces and distributes sound programs including live events. Rooftop will be integrated into Audible, which the Seattle giant has already owned since 2008. Pandora has over 35 thousand traces of scripted audio ready to listen. Every week beyond a million di people they download and they listen a 12 o'clock episode ofradio play Serial, which seems to excite listeners as much as Breakind Bad captivate the viewers. A success that left many observers stunned. People really listen to everything.
Podcasting isn't quite the pinnacle of high tech—it was introduced a decade ago for to distribute on the network radio programs or audio files through a feed RSS which allows you to automatically download the file and play it. It seems that 40 million of Americans let them listen some content in podcast to the point that theuse of this medium longed aumentando of the Present in several = 25% every year. Appearance is also interesting demographic of the phenomenon: two out of three consumers of this type of audio content have aage between 18 and 34 years, the most coveted target by advertisers. It is therefore expected that some interesting money will rain down on podcasting publishers.
Books: the audiobook boom
In 2013 were published in United States 36mila audiobooks about six times those published in 2010 according to one survey by the Audio Publishers Association. In the five years 2009-2014 theaverage increase of this industry was of Present in several = 12,7%: today is valid two billion dollars, employs over 4000 people distributed in 400 companies. THE downloadable audiobooks, in mp3 or AAX format, have reached the Present in several = 61% of audiobooks purchased in the United States.
For the moment it is a trends limited to United States, by far the most large book market of the world: the trade channels (bookstores, online bookstores and mass distribution) are worth 30 billion dollars, more than a quarter of the global value of the book industry. Audiobooks are calculated to be the 7% of this market and a quarter of that digital. Alexander Alter on the “Wall Street Journal” commented on these data as follows: “The digital revolution may have dealt a crushing blow to print, but it is expanding reading unexpectedly through the explosive growth of audiobooks".
Il rest of the world still has to discover this amenity. The UK, the second-largest market, is just a tenth of the US audiobook market, but that's it crescendo so stunning. nell 'Continental Europe audiobooks are onemini niche for the aficionado, but things are changing rapidly as evidenced by the Germany where i audiobook are more popular of ebook and already five million users use them.
È changed deeply even theatteggiamento of publishers. Until a few years ago, publishers didn't even buy the audio rights to a title, now hardly vi they give upon the contrary, they hasten to settle previous contracts. The Present in several = 75% of the titles published byHarper Collins they are in audiobook in unabridged version. In 2014 Penguin-Random House produced 300 audio titles. The digital catalog of Simon & Schuster available on the publisher's website contains 1200 titles.
From audiobook to audioscript
Due to the state of grace of audio with the public and publishers, there has been a sort of evolution like this: from a voice who reads the content of the text faithfully with the right intonation, a a real script with multiple voices, ambient sounds and music.
This is where audiobooks tend to form themselves into a specific narrative genre is looks like very ai radio plays or radio dramas, also in vogue in Italy in the fifties and sixties, but never gone out of fashion among aficionados. For some productions, publishers are thinking of replacing the wording "audiobook" with "audio entertainment”, which, indeed, tends to be a text read and recited as one play. There are authors, like David Hewson, who only write for this type of outlet and you arespecialized in this kind of writing.
World War Z, a zombie story-turned-film starring Brad Pitt, was downloaded 60 thousand times in an audiodrama version with a cast of narrators consisting of 40 actors including Alfred Molina and Martin Scorsese. Similarly AudioGo has published 25 works exclusively in audio with a highly respected cast of actors.
The convergence between audiobooks and ebooks
Audiobook ed ebook they started converge. Thanks to the latest developments in ePub technology, the audio version of a text can be incorporated and heard in a ebook with the option, in certain advanced versions of ebooks, of synchronize la voice text. It is no coincidence that it was once again Amazon to experience the iintegration between reading e listening. nell 'Kindle apps for iOS and Android, as well as on the Kindle Fire, the function is present Whispering for Voice which puts in continuity reading e listening and viceversa. Even the app Audible for iOS, Android and Windows Phone supports Whispersing for Voice.
They are currently available 45 thousand Kindle books with Whispersing for Voice active. An impressive number of titles for which one can start reading on the train, continue listening to the narration on the way to the office without losing one's mark and finally resume reading in the office from where one has finished listening. There synchronization between listening and reading happens also between devices e appdifferent. For example, you can start reading on a Kindle Fire, continue listening on an iPhone, and finally resume reading on a Nexus tablet. Fabulous and it works fine! There is, however, one thing paradoxical which should make Jeff Bezos think about the need topassare to more advanced configuration of the devices dedicated reading Kindle. The paradox is that on these devices, with the exception of the Kindle Fire, not can be use the Whispersing for Voice, simply because nor il video lesson, nor theaudio are supported in current configurations. Amazon recommends reading on your Kindle and listening to synchronized audio on a different device. Quite complicated, bordering on impracticable.
However, the reader can console himself with matchmaker, which verified the existence of a audiobook for each Kindle book purchased, it allows you to download the audio file with a extra small which varies between 0,99 and 3,99 dollars.
All these beautiful innovations are about i English-speaking readers, but we also have something in Italy. The production of is very interesting The speaker, an audiobook publisher/distributor, which offers audio-eBook: reading and listening are within an ebook in ePub3 standard format which is supported by some ebook reading applications. If it also had Whispersing for Voice we would be at zen.
Audible and the ACX program
The Amazon of audiobooks is Audible, a Newark (NJ) company today part of constellation Amazon which he also boughtAudio brilliance, the largest producer of audio book CDs, so as to secure a almost monopoly also in this sector. Audible represents the almost all of the market of the downloadable audiobooks and, in addition to supplying the Amazon stores with titles, it also has alicensing agreement with Apple for iTunes which has a section of the shop dedicated to audiobooks
In 2013 Audible scored a increase of the Present in several = 33% on 2012. Today publishes 1000 news per month, an impressive amount of titles made also thanks to the program Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), launched in 2011.
ACX puts in contact writers ed publishers who hold the right with storytellers, actors and runners of sound they have the know how. If these subjects adhere to ACX they become authors of the audio edition and can divide un extra prize fixed (typically a dollar) for each title purchasedand an incentive very important which turns agnostic potential suppliers into co-marketer directly involved in the success of the product.
Il ACX program also offers aoption di revenue sharing: if they wish, writers, editors, storytellers and technicians can decide todivide equally royalty without anyone being required to make an initial investment for production. This revenue sharing formula is very popular in the new economy where risk is around the corner but there is a huge desire to experiment. The program ACX ha contributed enormously to growth of the market: in 2013 i titles came out with this program were 10mila. It is expected that they will soon be over half of the Audible catalog.
La production of an audiobook, outside the ACX program, not è just a no-cost investment. A finished hour of recording costs between 150 and 200 €. Audible offers publishers an average upfront payment of $1000, which doesn't cover costs.
An indicative figure of the economic weight di Audible is that the Newark company is the single largest employer for the actorsof the area of New York where there is the highest density of theaters and television studios in the world.
Press: audiomagazines and audiojournals
All the more major global newspapers in English have an audio solution for their readers. Some, however, have gone the extra mileover the sporadic offer in podcast of the main articles and services. They started to produce real ones audio editions.
The most significant case is that ofThe Economist,” that in the distant 2007 made one available full audio version of each number, baptizing it “The Economist word by word", downloadable also for sections. For eight years each Thursday at seven in the evening at the address http://www.economist.com/audio-edition The subscribers can download the 150mb of the zip file which contains the recording of all the articles in separate mp3s. THE not subscribed, with a fee, they can use of the same service in podcast. The staid and influential London magazine informs us that the audio version is downloaded from 25-30% of the readers who listen to it in the most disparate situations. Tom Standage, director of the digital area, declared that the audio version is "very, very popular with our readers". In many situations, he added, it's just theaudio il more practical way to understand the affairs of the world with the words of the iconic "The Economist". With self-satisfaction he declared that a subscriber listens to him while he swims.
When in 2012 “Wired-UK” launched an audio version, collecting weekly dai 20 thousand to 30 thousand downloads, the success amazed the publisher itself (Condé-Nast) who had initially, and without too much conviction, committed just 700 euros in the production of audio files to download. It's not so much a wonder,"The New Yorker”, the noblest publication of Condé-Nast, offers the audio tracks of the weekly main articles in an excellent edition produced by Audible. All numbers starting from are available2004: over a thousand hours of listening for fans of the impeccable style of the New Yorker with tuba and monocle
"Time” chose a solution different for audio. It's possible to listen the article by cover only atinternal ofiPad application. Here the intent to give greater weight to this edition of the weekly by inserting an important plus is evident. A somewhat questionable and penalizing choice for subscribers who would like to be able to download the audio track and listen to it on the device they prefer. For example, for lovers of audio jogging it is impractical. However, they will be able to turn to the competition: “Forbes” is an audiobook that can be purchased on Audible as a single issue, with a monthly or annual subscription.
Nor can we forget the mainstream monthlies”Harvard Business Review"and "Scientific American magazine” which produce an audio of each release for an hour, an hour and a half of listening with the highlights of the month.
Then there are the two major US newspapers which since 1999 have been competing for the transfer time of the commuters offering him the opportunity to listen to the best pieces of the daily menu with earphones. “Here's a creative way to capitalize on your morning commute: listen to the Wall Street Journal”, so the Dow Jones tries to convince readers to buy the audio edition of the WSJ. A good hour of listening with weekend bonuses Friday. The "New York Times” he replied with the version “audiodigest”, 45 minutes of listening to articles selected by the newspaper's editorial staff already available 6:30 in the morning up Audible.
Why is audio so popular?
Obviously at the basis of everything there are the mobile devices and the radical innovation they are bringing to distribution and the best before dateof the new media. However, this phenomenon alone is not enough to explain the audio renaissance, which is something to do withconsumer behaviours and with lifestyles of people who consume content. Matthew Thornton, a spokesman for Audible, said audio is one of better means to meet the needs of consumers who ask "practicality.,assortment e multitasking".
We have already spoken extensively above of the first two. Let's focus on multitasking which is an increasingly widespread practice, although there are very different opinions on whether it is a good thing or not. L'audio is the tool more formidable to operate in multitasking. The radio has already accustomed us to this. To read a text or watch a video compelsimmobility, requires a certain concentration and engages a sense like the view is it is not shareable, even if the Google glasses will probably change our opinion. To read ewatch they can also leave room for other activities, but they force atimmobility. And that's exactly the point here. Today everything is mobility, movement, rebound and continuous solicitation. We have all become kinetics, not just for metabolism. The audio follows thekinetic energyindeed it is an expression of it. The movement it's a social value increasingly promoted and valued by public opinion, governments, international organizations and health authorities.
Una Research conducted by Bowker commissioned by the Audio Publishers Association found that out of 100 audiobook purchasers the Present in several = 47% listen to them in transfers between home and work, the Present in several = 25% while performing Houseworks and Present in several = 23% while it does physical activity. The growth of ebooks is therefore directly linked to the increase in mobility or the discovery of multitasking mobility.
The improbable case, proudly mentioned by the head of the digital area of "The Economist", of the subscriber who listens to the articles while swimming photographs the spirit of our time, as does an Audible commercial. Earphones plugged into an iPhone, on whose screen is the cover of 50 shades of gray, turn into a rose and an inviting female voice says, "Enjoy a steamy romance while ironing the sheets." Brilliant idea, but… be careful not to burn them!
What in new media you tend to step away twigs single use it can also be inferred from some experiments conducted in certain cinemas in Los Angeles and in China. In the capital of cinema, an attempt is being made to combat the drop in spectators by installing an additional screen on the seats in the theaters for interaction on social networks. Some Chinese cinemas offer Wi-Fi service in the theater and encourage the use of mobile devices during the screening of the film. These are extreme, and perhaps desperate, outcomes of cultural, inbehavior of people. However, it is the same process that led to the success of a microblogging like Twitter or series ofYouTube whose episodes complete in 20 minutes or more of Kindle Singles to be read in just over an hour. The same trend is pushing readers towards the audiobook.
In a few years we will no longer ask a friend: “You read The Confessions of St Augustine, but we will say: “You listened The Confessions of St Augustine read by Alessandro Preziosi?”.
