A Brief History of Audio Books and Recording Media
by Art Vandelay on 2007-09-24
People have been familiar with the concept of audio books for ages, long before they started printing paper books. Oral storytelling, ballads and poetry were the only means to pass knowledge from generation to generation.
In 1877 Tomas Edison announced his invention of a rotating-cylinder phonograph. This new technology created the foundation for recording vocal interpretations of literature.
In October 1899 Marconi made his first trip to the U.S. to broadcast results of the America’s Cup race. In Jan. 12-13, 1910. De Forest arranges the world's first radio broadcast to public, directly from Metropolitan Opera to several listeners in New York.
By 1915 daily weather reports for farmers were transmitted on the air. The history of Public Radio has begun. The spoken word of literature started its penetration into households all over the country.
The Mercury Theater on the Air was probably one of the most famous predecessors of modern audio books. In 1938 Orson Welles’ famous show “War of the Worlds” threw the nation into panic. Abbott and Costello's immortal "Who's on First?" baseball routine, Jack Benny's hilarious "Your Money or Your Life?" – who can forget these spectacular shows?
In 1931 the Congress established the talking-book program, which was intended to help blind adults who couldn’t read print. This program was called “Books for the Adult Blind Project”. The American Foundation for the Blind developed first talking books in 1932. One year later the first reproduction machine began the process of mass publishing. By 1935, after Congress approved free mailings of audio books to blind citizens, the Books for the Adult Blind Project was in full operation. In 1992 the National Library Service (NLS) for Blind and Physically Handicapped network circulated millions of recorded books to more than 700,000 handicapped listeners. All NLS recordings were created by professionals.
The Disney stories are part of our children's music culture, and to exclude it would leave just part of a story told. The vinyl era of Walt Disney began in 1934 when RCA/Victor released the first gramophone records of Disney soundtracks. The series included 'In a Silly Symphony,' 'Dance of the Bogey Man,' 'Mickey Mouse and Minnie's in Town,' and 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?'
In 1965 the Buena Vista soundtrack album of 'Mary Poppins' was a super hit of all times and spent 14 weeks in the No. 1 position on the Billboard chart setting up a company record. The recording won two Grammy Awards, Best Recording for Children and Best Original Score. The sales exceeded 2 million copies. In 1988 the soundtrack of 'Oliver & Company' marked the end of the vinyl era -- it was the last Disney animated feature soundtrack to be released domestically on 12-inch disk. The CD revolution had arrived.
With the development of portable cassette recorders audiotapes had become very popular and by the late 1960s libraries became a source of free audio books on cassettes. Instructional and educational recordings came first followed by self-help tapes, and then by literature and fiction. In 1970 Books on Tape Corporation started rental plans for audio books distribution. The company expanded their services selling their products to libraries. Audio books gained more and more popularity. By the middle of 1980s the audio publishing business grew to several billion dollars a year. The new companies, Recorded Books and Chivers Audio Books, were the first to develop integrated production teams and to work with professional actors. And since libraries made up the largest segment of their market space, Chivers Audio Books established close connections with them from the very beginning of the company’s existence.
In 1996 Audio Publishers Association established the Audie Awards for audio books, which is an equivalent to the Oscar for the talking books industry. The nominees are announced each year in January, and the winners are announced at a gala banquet in spring, usually in conjunction with BookExpo America.
The quantity of the audio book enthusiasts continued to grow. They began joining into audio book clubs. By 1997 the Columbia House Audio Book Club had more than 150,000 members and the Herrik Company’s Audio Book Club in Morristown, NJ had 215,000 members.
Invention of CDs added to the convenience and flexibility of listening. But a truly new era for audio books began with the advent of the Internet, broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and tiny portable MP3 players on flash memory cards and microdrive hard disks. Now the popularity of audio books really soared. After Audioble.com many other audio book download subscription services began to grow as fast as mushrooms. OverDrive and NetLibrary opened their services to local libraries. Now the listeners were able to effortlessly get any audio book on line and download it onto their micro media players. That’s where the real fun began, and William Swanson’s famous words became as true as never before: ‘Audio books are one of those happy marriages of art and convenience loved by frenetic Americans. The idea ... is to enable us to enjoy books - a traditionally solitary and concentration-intensive pastime - while doing something else - mowing the lawn, cruising the interstate - often in the company of others.’
You can take a look at some illustrations to this article and listen to phonograph and vinyl records sound samples at www.booksalley.com
At this site you can also find and download free audio books and read about best mp3 players for audio books.
In 1877 Tomas Edison announced his invention of a rotating-cylinder phonograph. This new technology created the foundation for recording vocal interpretations of literature.
In October 1899 Marconi made his first trip to the U.S. to broadcast results of the America’s Cup race. In Jan. 12-13, 1910. De Forest arranges the world's first radio broadcast to public, directly from Metropolitan Opera to several listeners in New York.
By 1915 daily weather reports for farmers were transmitted on the air. The history of Public Radio has begun. The spoken word of literature started its penetration into households all over the country.
The Mercury Theater on the Air was probably one of the most famous predecessors of modern audio books. In 1938 Orson Welles’ famous show “War of the Worlds” threw the nation into panic. Abbott and Costello's immortal "Who's on First?" baseball routine, Jack Benny's hilarious "Your Money or Your Life?" – who can forget these spectacular shows?
In 1931 the Congress established the talking-book program, which was intended to help blind adults who couldn’t read print. This program was called “Books for the Adult Blind Project”. The American Foundation for the Blind developed first talking books in 1932. One year later the first reproduction machine began the process of mass publishing. By 1935, after Congress approved free mailings of audio books to blind citizens, the Books for the Adult Blind Project was in full operation. In 1992 the National Library Service (NLS) for Blind and Physically Handicapped network circulated millions of recorded books to more than 700,000 handicapped listeners. All NLS recordings were created by professionals.
The Disney stories are part of our children's music culture, and to exclude it would leave just part of a story told. The vinyl era of Walt Disney began in 1934 when RCA/Victor released the first gramophone records of Disney soundtracks. The series included 'In a Silly Symphony,' 'Dance of the Bogey Man,' 'Mickey Mouse and Minnie's in Town,' and 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?'
In 1965 the Buena Vista soundtrack album of 'Mary Poppins' was a super hit of all times and spent 14 weeks in the No. 1 position on the Billboard chart setting up a company record. The recording won two Grammy Awards, Best Recording for Children and Best Original Score. The sales exceeded 2 million copies. In 1988 the soundtrack of 'Oliver & Company' marked the end of the vinyl era -- it was the last Disney animated feature soundtrack to be released domestically on 12-inch disk. The CD revolution had arrived.
With the development of portable cassette recorders audiotapes had become very popular and by the late 1960s libraries became a source of free audio books on cassettes. Instructional and educational recordings came first followed by self-help tapes, and then by literature and fiction. In 1970 Books on Tape Corporation started rental plans for audio books distribution. The company expanded their services selling their products to libraries. Audio books gained more and more popularity. By the middle of 1980s the audio publishing business grew to several billion dollars a year. The new companies, Recorded Books and Chivers Audio Books, were the first to develop integrated production teams and to work with professional actors. And since libraries made up the largest segment of their market space, Chivers Audio Books established close connections with them from the very beginning of the company’s existence.
In 1996 Audio Publishers Association established the Audie Awards for audio books, which is an equivalent to the Oscar for the talking books industry. The nominees are announced each year in January, and the winners are announced at a gala banquet in spring, usually in conjunction with BookExpo America.
The quantity of the audio book enthusiasts continued to grow. They began joining into audio book clubs. By 1997 the Columbia House Audio Book Club had more than 150,000 members and the Herrik Company’s Audio Book Club in Morristown, NJ had 215,000 members.
Invention of CDs added to the convenience and flexibility of listening. But a truly new era for audio books began with the advent of the Internet, broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and tiny portable MP3 players on flash memory cards and microdrive hard disks. Now the popularity of audio books really soared. After Audioble.com many other audio book download subscription services began to grow as fast as mushrooms. OverDrive and NetLibrary opened their services to local libraries. Now the listeners were able to effortlessly get any audio book on line and download it onto their micro media players. That’s where the real fun began, and William Swanson’s famous words became as true as never before: ‘Audio books are one of those happy marriages of art and convenience loved by frenetic Americans. The idea ... is to enable us to enjoy books - a traditionally solitary and concentration-intensive pastime - while doing something else - mowing the lawn, cruising the interstate - often in the company of others.’
You can take a look at some illustrations to this article and listen to phonograph and vinyl records sound samples at www.booksalley.com
At this site you can also find and download free audio books and read about best mp3 players for audio books.
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