Thomas Edison may be surprised and most certainly would be pleased at the ways modern listeners access and use audio books.
Almost from the beginning of time, people have loved to listen to stories. Balladeers, troubadours, poets, historians and storytellers have held a place of honor in nearly every culture throughout history. Telling tales of adventure and days gone by has always been an important way of passing traditions and knowledge from one generation to another.
In todays fast-paced society the ways we listen to stories may have changed, but the underlying fondness many people have for hearing a captivating tale or learning new information remains the same. That is why the popularity of audio books has continued to rise during the last few years. They provide a way for busy people, who may not take the time to sit down and read, to enjoy a book while they are driving, exercising or performing other tasks
Early Audio Recordings
People who download audiobooks from the Internet and listen to them via an MP3 player may assume that they are using technology that has only been available in recent years. While it’s true that digital recordings and online availability are recent advancements, the fact is that Thomas Edison anticipated the usefulness of audio books when he first applied for a patent on his phonograph in 1877. He listed ten ways he thought his invention might be used with “phonograph books which will speak to blind people without effort on their part” coming in at number four.
It took several years and many improvements on Edison’s early efforts to make the recording of books a viable option, however. In the first part of the 20th Century, audio recordings were much improved from Edison’s first attempts, but the sound was still of poor quality and the recordings were made of shellac. This made them brittle and not suitable for sending through the mail or being loaned through libraries. In addition, the records were played at 78 rpm and could only hold about 12 minutes of recorded sound, which was not nearly long enough to make the recording of an entire book practical.
Help From Congress
By 1931, however, vinyl records that rotated at 33-1/3 rpm and played for twenty minutes or more had been developed. Edison’s vision of talking books was finally within reach. That year the US Congress established the “Books for the Adult Blind Project.” It funded work by the American Foundation for the Blind to develop audio books. The earliest recorded audiobooks was the Bible and many US historic documents such as the Preamble to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. By 1935 improved methods of recording audiobooks had been developed and Congress approved the free mailing of talking books to blind citizens. The project took off from that point and provided books for visually impaired Americans for decades.
Post War Era
In the years following World War II, recordings of books on LP records and reel-to-reel tapes were used within the library and education systems. Students could hear reproductions of news broadcasts and classic works of prose and poetry. Tapes and records were not easily portable, however, and the number of books preserved by those methods remained small.
The next big advancement in audio book availability happened with the development of the cassette tape. Japanese cars made in the 1970s often came equipped with cassette players even on baseline models. When gasoline prices rose, these fuel-efficient vehicles became more popular, and many drivers saw the benefit of listening to books as they traveled or idled in a traffic jam.
Books on Tape Corporation came into being in 1970 and started rental plans for schools, libraries and individuals who wished to borrow the tapes. Audiobooks rental clubs sprang up and became increasingly popular throughout the 1980’s. By the mid-80’s, in fact, the business of publishing audiobooks had a retail value of several billion dollars per year.
Digitization
Audiobooks on CD became available in the 1980’s but this segment of the market did not grow nearly as quickly as the market for music CD’s. This is most likely because people who enjoyed listening to books did not care as much about the quality of the sound as they did about the convenience of bookmarking their place in the recording. When car manufacturers began including CD players in most new models, however, CD audiobooks got a big boost in popularity.
Digitization of books and the widespread use of portable listening devices like the iPod have combined to make today’s audio books available at a moment’s notice. A downloadable audio book can be acquired online within a few minutes and enjoyed for hours. There are many audio book subscription services that make it easy for people to find and access books in just about any genre they wish.
Although Thomas Edison may be surprised at the ways modern listener’s access and use audio books, he most certainly would be pleased that his invention of the phonograph started a trend that has continued for more than 130 years.
Resources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_books
