Why Audible is beating Books on Tape
Written: Nov 12 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Flexbility in content and playback options; simple operation
Cons: Selection more limited than Books on Tape
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| Meatloaf's Full Review: Audible Mobile Player |
I have rented recorded books from Books on Tape for nearly a decade, and have used Audible's mobile player for about two weeks. I am extremely loyal to B-O-T and like the way they run their business. (Quick service; prompt no-questions refunds when there is a problem, high-quality content, and so on.) But it seems clear that Audible has simply leapfrogged them technologically. As the Audible model spreads, it will be hard for recorded-tape companies to compete without radical changes of their own. Consider the pros and cons:
I. WHERE BOOKS ON TAPE STILL HAS AN ADVANTAGE.
1) Initial capital costs are lower. Most cars come with a tape player built in. Walkman-style portable players can be very cheap, $40 or so. The low-end Audible player costs $99.
2) Content costs can be slightly cheaper. A typical 15-hour recorded book on BOT costs about $14. Audible's cost for a similar book is a few dollars more. On the other hand, there is a couple-dollar shipment charge for getting tapes back to BOT, so the edge almost goes away.
3) Selection is bigger and easier to search. BOT has a very large selection of very well-produced recordings. Essentially, if it's a major novel or non-fiction work, they've got it. Also, their web site is fast and easy to search -- the effect is like Amazon's. Audible's search engine seems not as goo.d
II. WHY AUDIBLE HAS BIGGER ADVANTAGES.
1) Flexibility in replay-options. Books on Tape can be played only one way: in a tape player. Once you've downloaded an Audible file, you can switch back and forth among various replay modes, depending on what's convenient at the moment. You can (a) play it via your computer's own sound system; (b) play it Walkman-style, through headphones attached to the very elegant little portable player; (c) play it on your car radio, by having that same portable player transmit in FM to your radio; (d) play it on a tape system, through a system complicated to explain but easy to use.
2) Flexibility in content. The standard Audible player holds two hours of content -- enough, for most purposes, even though in reality it's more like 1 hour, 50 minutes -- and you can mix and match as you choose. Two hours of a single book; ten minutes each of a variety of different news broadcasts; half one book, half the other. Etc.
3) Timeliness in content. Audible features a variety of news programs that you can download each morning and listen as you drive.
4) Instant gratification. With Books on Tape, it takes at least several days to receive what you're looking for. With a fast connection, you can download an Audible file in a few minutes and start listening.
5) BRILLIANTLY simple operation. The people who design, say, Windows might take some pointers from how smoothly this system works. Suppose you're listening (as I just have been) to Philip Roth's novel American Pastoral, read (fabulously) by the actor Ron Silver. The book is a total of something like 15 hours of content. The little player holds 2 hours at a time. In the normal computer world, you'd worry about having to listen all the way to the end of the two hours, and refilling it only then, and where would the start and end points come, etc. With Audible, you listen to as much as you want at a certain sitting. The next time you're home, you plug the player into its little cradle -- and it updates itself (in one-click fashion) exactly the way it should. Say you've listened to the first 34 minutes of a book. The player moves the starting point to the first section you HAVEN'T heard, discards those first 34 minutes (you can get them again if you want), loads another 34 minutes at the back end, and sets you up with two hours of just what you'd like to hear. Again, this takes one button.
In short, this is the wave of the future. Sorry, Books on Tape.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Meatloaf
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Location: Seattle
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 16 members
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