Listened To Books Recently?

Well, I am referring to listening to Digital Audio Books. This is one hot area which has been flying under the radar for the last few years and now is quitely taking off.

Downloadable AudioBooks are setting a new trend in today's time starved world, where people just don't have the luxury of time to sit and read a book!. Don't confuse these audiobooks with the low budget 'recorded in the bedroom' ones that are hastily created and floating around the internet marketing websites! I am talking about premium quality audiobooks. The market has become so huge that you can find major players like BBC AudioBooks, Gildan Media, Harper Collins, Orion Publishing, Pimsleur, Simon and Schuster, Time Warner and lots more involved in the publishing of audiobooks.

Industry sources predict that downloadable audiobooks will OUTSELL printed books in the next few years. According to reports in Audio Publishers Association (APA) archives, at the end of 2005, the AudioBook download industry was at $2billion and rose over 150% compared to the prior year!

Aren't AudioBooks for Kids ?

Not Anymore! These days you can get audiobooks on any imaginable topic - Golf, Fiction, Language, Poetry, Drama, Health, History, SelfHelp, Diet, Business, Comedy, Internet Marketing and of course children's books...

Technology is Fueling Demand.

MP3 players are in the same trend that existed with Cellular Phones a decade ago. Now, look at the number of cell phone users! You can bet that a similar trend will exist for digital audio players. iPod sales have been exceeding expectations every quarter. Microsoft's Zune sales are expected to exceed the million mark in a mere few months! This number will only keep going up..

As the cost of MP3 players/Phones keep coming down, more and more people are adopting this new trend of listening to books as opposed to reading them. The days when you had to carry CDs or Audio Cassettes are history. The Internet era has made it possible to download the audiobook files right into your favorite MP3 player - iPod, Zune etc. and carry them with you wherever you go. You can listen to your books at the gym or while traveling or when you are stuck in a traffic jam or wherever you can think of. Now you can use all the "dead time" to listen to your favorite author or to pickup a new language skill or listen to some self improvement course. Whatever be the topic, there is always something to suit your taste that you will be able to find.

Digital AudioBooks can make wonderful gifts for loved ones. Some categories of audiobooks that you can expect to find are Arts & Drama, Biographies, Business, Crime & Thrillers , Fiction, Language Study, Health & Recreation, History, Humor, Kids, Radio Shows, Religion & Spiritual, Self Help, TV & Film. Also, Digital AudioBooks offer substantial savings over Physical AudioBooks.

iPod and Zune are registered trademarks of Apple and Microsoft respectively.

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