Now that the books are in digital format, he said, they are accessible to many more people. “At the beginning it was about having the right device to play the file format,” said Christopher Platt, New York Public Library’s chief branch officer. Audible is among the most used paid subscription platforms, with apps that can be downloaded on smartphones, iPads, desktops and Kindle, but there are also plenty of free applications through local library systems, such as Hoopla and Overdrive.ĬD versions of audiobooks are also still sold and available in libraries, as are devices made specifically for audiobook reading. And a year later, Audible made it possible to download books onto desktop computers.Īs audiobooks have become more popular, there have been countless debates over the best applications and ways to digest the medium.

Waldenbooks installed “audio centers” in their bookstores and the publishing houses Random House, Warner Publishing and Simon & Schuster opened audio publishing divisions.īy 1994, the term “audiobook” had become an industry standard. New technology spurred audiobook growth with cassette tapes in the 1960s and compact discs in the 1980s. In 1955, the Listening Library became a major distributor for recorded books. More recording companies slowly emerged, mostly to assist the blind. Initial recordings included William Shakespeare plays, The Constitution and the novel “As the Earth Turns” by Gladys Hasty Carroll. The following year, Congress passed an amendment that allowed the Library of Congress to begin producing audiobooks. Each side held about 15 minutes of speech. On the anniversary of the device, the PBS NewsHour looks at back at the history of audiobooks, how they’re different from reading on the page, and where they’re headed next.Īudiobooks first emerged in 1932 with the establishment of a recording studio by The American Foundation for the Blind, which created recordings of books on vinyl records. More than 67 million Americans now listen to audiobooks annually, according to the Audio Publisher’s Association.

Today, readers can listen to hundreds of hours on their smartphones and choose from more than 35,000 books published each year on dozens of applications and devices. It cost $200 and could only hold about two hours of audio. Twenty years ago, Amazon’s Audible released the first portable audio player designed specifically for listening to audiobooks.

Amazon audible app