Gaiman on MP3 Audio Books, Mirrormask 171
A reader writes: "It appears that Neil Gaiman released two of his books (Anansi Boys and American Gods) as books on CD. The interesting twist is that they are being released as MP3 - which for the world of audio books is something pretty new. ". Indeed; MP3 audio books, I think, have given the book publishers the willies because of the DRM issue - anyone else seen this before? And also worth noting that Mirrormask was released in motion picture form and rocks. I think to describe it would be equal parts The Dark Crystal and Myst, combine with Carnivale and a dash of The City of Lost Children.
TFArticle? (Score:4, Informative)
audiobook mp3s (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.audiobooksonline.com/shopsite/mp3_audi
Harry Potter has been available at ITunes.. (Score:5, Informative)
Not huge yet, but let's face it... as far as security is concerned, If you can get the cd, you can rip to mp3. I do that all the time to get books to listen to while I'm running. Angela's Ashes will be playing for me during a marathon this weekend.
(For you national socialists at RIAA, no, I am not posting the mp3's. This is for my own fair use)
MP3 audio supported by Library of Congress (Score:5, Informative)
Project Gutenberg - Free MP3 Audio Books (Score:5, Informative)
They have collections [gutenberg.org] of both human read mp3 audio books [gutenberg.org] and computer read mp3 audio books [gutenberg.org] (kind of weird).
Isis publishing / Terry Pratchett audio book (Score:5, Informative)
If you put the stuff out on CD it will be ripped, end of story (no pun intended). If you can reduce your costs significantly and provide the same thing, then why not do it? It's not like audio books need --alt-preset extreme applied to 'em, is it?
MP3s of audio books are excellent for long car journeys, etc, so more power to the elbow of those making them: I'll keep buying them.
Re:Audio books... in general (Score:2, Informative)
Big Finish http://www.bigfinish.com/ [bigfinish.com] Fantastic scifi audio (mostly Doctor Who related)
or
Noise Monster http://www.noisemonster.com/ [noisemonster.com].
Anyone wanting something more than an audiobook, but still staying in the audio medium should check out their stuff. It's written and produced directly for the audio, and in the case of Doctor Who from Big Finish, is licensed by the BBC and uses the original cast.
Bad format, though (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Audio books... in general (Score:2, Informative)
When American Gods was released in print, I was lucky enough to have the first chapter read to me by Gaiman at a signing, and it was fantastic to listen to him read that much of it. But the thought of lugging around multiple CDs (which is traditionally how they come) for one lengthy novel puts me off the audio bit.
I have a copy of The Lord of the Rings trilogy on CD that is supposedly fantastic, but it's almost a spindle-worth of CDs and I can't get into it because of that--what a commitment. And I'd rather carry around a tattered copy of the book than spend the time ripping them to MP3s that I could dump to my iPod so I could have them on the go.
MP3 format should make the audios involve less discs... and that appeals to me. BUT, I don't have an MP3 player in my car, so the disc would be ripped to my computer and dumped on my iPod for transport.
As an aside, Daniel Quinn's book Ishmael was given to me as a book on tape about 10 years ago. I wore it out listening to it and am now searching for another audio copy of that recording.
And I should probably also note that I am generally a very page-turning traditionalist when it comes to my reading...but audio adaptations/recordings do have their place.
Re:Audible dot com (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Audio books... in general (Score:3, Informative)
So does Samsung and iAudio. Last week my wife decided she finally wanted an MP3 player and, since I'd ripped most of our CDs in OGG format, I required that it support OGG. She required that it be "cute". This was far more difficult than one might think.
The first problem: Sorting out which players actually support OGG. Depending on what website you go to to compare, and what manufacturer you use, it can be quite difficult to find which players support OGG. Many of the manufacturers do not support OGG on all players (iRiver, for example). Some players claim OGG support in some places but not others.
The second problem: "What the hell is OGG?" That's what most non-geeks will say. Even some geeks who think that de facto standards trump open standards will give you a queer look when you mention OGG. Certainly you'll run into problems if you walk into Best Buy and say: "I'm looking for an MP3 player with OGG support."
The third problem (not for me, but I'm sure for many): It's not supported on the iPod. Ugh. Yeah yeah, AAC, whatever.
The fourth problem: You've made using iTunes much more difficult. Now you must either burn and copy or use something to strip the DRM. Of course, you could use another service, but then you get Microsoft DRM, which is bleh. Then you have eMusic, which is good accept it's a monthly fee service (the only point of joining a service like that is to get the occasional single, otherwise buying CDs is so much better) and it doesn't have as good of a library. There's the less-than-legal ways to get your music, but they shouldn't be considered (for this argument).
Wow, what a tangent.
Anyway, the flip side of this is when someone gets a player that supports OGG, but doesn't do so purposefully. They read something that says "OGG Vorbis support" and don't know what that is. Then they forget. After that, as far as their concerned, they don't have a way to play that.
Gaiman fought to get it (Score:4, Informative)
So once again, it's a case of the artist fighting for better access for the listener/reader/watcher, against the wished of the business execs. They claim they're trying to protect the artist but when artists have to fight for things they want, like mp3 audiobooks, CC-licensed book, and torrents of albums, it gets pretty easy to see through the lies.
Don't forget Scott Sigler! (Score:2, Informative)