The novel that could and would undoubtedly be the biggest digital audiobook seller of all time, J.K. Rowling’s coming “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” likely won’t be available for downloading. To date, Rowling hasn’t made a deal for the book to be published in a downloadable format, and none of the previous Harry Potter books are available that way, either.
This stance comes at a time when downloadable audiobooks are on the verge of takeoff with iPod, MP3 players and podcasting taking off.
News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers is forecasting that its digital audiobook sales will jump 40% next year, driven in large part by the popularity of iPods — not only among older readers, but also the young, an elusive target for book purveyors.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post