35mm cameras and video cameras are already falling victim to the digital age, writes Michelle Pauli. Are we about to see the good, old-fashioned audio book follow suit?
The internet audio content supplier Audible certainly hopes so. Alongside all the audiobooks of bestsellers (and the rather racier Audible Originals) which subscribers can download on to their computers, the company is offering a digital-only audio version of Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt, bypassing the traditional CD and cassette formats. It's the first time that a publisher - in this case, Penguin - has transferred the audio recording of a book direct to a digital format, and Audible, naturally enough, see it as the format of the future.
"D2D (Direct to Digital) allows publishers to bring audio books to market much quicker than was previously possible - and with lower overheads," said Chris McKee, Audible's UK Managing Director. "With no manufacturing and no distribution required, we can take an audio recording and have it on sale in a matter of a couple of weeks".
Listeners pay £10.45 for the recording, which they download on to PC or Mac to then burn onto CD or import onto an iPod.
