AUDIO BOOKS
In marked contrast to ebook readers, MP3 players have opened a new digital age in audio books.
You can make an ebook available in MP3 format by:
a. recording yourself or someone else reading the text — either directly into MP3 format, or via WAV audio files. Software exists for both direct recording and WAV-MP3 format conversion.
b. using audio software that automatically reads .txt, .doc or .html files.
The first option gives by far the better result, and you may want to employ a professional narrator. Very broadly, a text is read at 145 words/minute, and one minute of recording MP3 will produce a file size of 0.5 MB. A 75,000-word novel will therefore take some 8.6 hours to read and require 260 MB to store on disk.
To prevent 'piracy' you will have to install DMR: third parties can provide this, but it's expensive and restricts your market.
Downloading Your Audio Book
1. MP3 music (which includes most audio books) is supplied in two forms:
a. By subscription. You pay a monthly fee, can download and play as much as you like, but you cannot burn the tracks onto CD for later use: you can only play your music while the subscription lasts. MP3's rating of services now available:
Product name |
MP3 Editors' rating |
Rhapsody 3.0 |
8.0 |
Napster |
7.8 |
Yahoo Music Unlimited 1.1 |
7.0 |
Virgin Digital with Red Pass |
6.7 |
MTV Urge |
8.0 |
eMusic |
7.0 |
b. By purchase. You pay item for item for what you download. More expensive, but you can make backup copies and save on CD. Popular distributors include: Audio LunchBox, BuyMusic, eMusic, iTunes, Live Downloads, MSN, Napster, Rhapsody, Sony Connect, Virgin Digital Music Store, Wal-Mart Music Downloads, and Yahoo.
Hardware is an added complication. The only MP3 Players listed as supporting iTunes, for example, are Apple iPod, Apple iPod Video, Apple iPod Nano, Apple iPod Shuffle, and Motorola Rokr (though you can convert the iTunes file to another format with something like BlazeMedia Pro).
2. Added to this complexity are the different file types and bit rates employed by the distributors, which also affects your choice of MP3 hardware. The different formats:
Music store/service |
File type(s) |
DMR |
Download
|
Streaming
|
Apple iTunes |
AAC |
Yes |
128Kbps |
n/a |
Napster |
WMA |
Yes |
192Kbps |
192Kbps |
Rhapsody |
RAX (Harmony) |
Yes |
192Kbps |
160Kbps (hi-fi)/64Kbps (lo-fi) |
Yahoo Music |
WMA |
Yes |
192Kbps |
128Kbps |
MSN Music |
WMA |
Yes |
192Kbps |
n/a |
Musicmatch |
WMA |
Yes |
160Kbps |
128Kbps |
Wal-Mart Music |
WMA |
Yes |
128Kbps |
n/a |
BuyMusic |
WMA |
Yes |
128Kbps for most; select songs at 256Kbps |
n/a |
Virgin Digital |
WMA |
Yes |
128Kbps |
128Kbps |
Sony Connect |
ATRAC3 |
Yes |
132Kbps |
n/a |
eMusic |
MP3 |
No |
VBR (192Kbps to 320Kbps) |
n/a |
Audio Lunchbox |
MP3 and OGG |
No |
192Kbps VBR |
n/a |
Live Downloads |
FLAC |
No |
Lossless |
n/a |
To check hardware compatibility, go to CNet, select the service, and click on each of the listed players to get brief specifications.