The Guardian Two of Britain's biggest audio book publishers are hoping to raise sales by breaking into the internet MP3 market with cut-price sound versions of bestsellers and classics. Lady Thatcher's voice, reading from The Downing Street Years, is among those expected to be advertised on selected websites. The books will be in encrypted form, downloadable as files for MP3 players. Penguin and HarperCollins are joining forces with Didio, a digital audio company, to launch the venture in the first quarter of the new year, it emerged yesterday. But I see the number of downloads overtaking sales of physical copies fairly soon.
Research indicates that the market is going to explode in the next few years.
Much of the project's planning has gone into finding an encryption technique that stops files from being downloaded without payment or copied between users. The security and transaction technology comes from Magex, the digital commerce company launched by NatWest. Our hope is that we will always be one step ahead of the code crackers. Titles will include Gervase Phinn's Over Hill and Dale, Chris Stewart's travel bestseller Driving over Lemons, Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole stories, and a children's title by Allan Ahlberg. Royalty negotiations for authors for some other titles are still under way.