Audiobooks Moving From Cassettes To Cds

Audiocassettes have gradually become the new dinosaurs of the recording industry.

Just as 8-track tape players gave way to audiocassette players, and Betamax videocassette players were replaced by the VHS format, CDs and DVDs are today’s norm.

This fact has become a particular issue for the audiobook industry, which is why publishers are now putting out books on CD.

“It’s not that they’re eliminating the tapes,” says Auntie’s Bookstore employee Julie Smith. “They still offer both, and a lot of them are offering just the tapes. What’s happening, though, is that more and more are starting to incorporate CDs as well.”

Many fans of audiobooks listen in their cars. Yet most new midrange cars come equipped only with a CD player.

“Top-line models still have a CD and cassette (combo) standard, just as a convenience,” says Ray Agnew, sales manager of Downtown Honda. For middle and lower-end models, though, he says, “The cassette is more often an option. The CD is the standard now.”

Publishers Weekly, a leading trade journal, reports that the recorded-book business has developed into a $2 billion industry over the past 15 years. One study claimed that audiobook sales between 1993-97 were five times greater than that of print books.

It’s too early to gauge just how much of the overall recorded-book market has moved to CD, yet some publishers are jumping into the format with high expectations.

Not all are happy about it.

“It’s irritating,” says Garry Challender, owner of Spokane audiobook publisher Books in Motion. “It used to be one industry and now it’s split down the middle. We have to provide product for two different markets, but it’s the same market.”

But Jenny Frost, president of Random House AudioBook Group, was cheered by last June’s announcement that Barnes & Noble would feature a separate books-on-CD section in its stores nationwide.

“We’ve felt that the potential growth for CDs is tremendous,” Frost told Publishers Weekly. She said the key to CD-book sales is “broadening selection and increasing visibility in the accounts. We currently offer all of our major titles on CD.”

That’s true of most publishers, says Steve Denney, community relations manager for the NorthTown Mall Barnes & Noble.

“Most books that come out on tape also come out on CD,” he says. “We actually have quite a few (books on CD) in the store. More than you would think.”

Books on CD are generally more expensive than books on tape. Amazon.com lists an unabridged version of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” on tape for $35.95, on CD for $55.96.

Yet the difference isn’t always so dire. Amazon.com lists its top-selling book in CD, Spencer Johnson’s self-help tome “Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life,” at $12.60. The tape version: $11.70.

Fans of recorded music know that music on CD sounds far better than music on tape. So do recorded books. Denney, however, emphasizes the format’s convenience.

“If you’re driving to Seattle,” he said, “wouldn’t you rather have to deal with three CDs than nine cassettes?”

But who can project the longevity even of CDs? Digitalization and Internet downloads are fast changing business in general, publishing in particular.

“The CDs, in our estimation, are already obsolete,” says Challender. “The direction we’re going to go is probably MP3 players in cars with retractable hard drives that can be downloaded off the computer. I think that’s the way of the future.”

Still, there are some cassette die-hards who can’t imagine listening to their books any other way.

“The people asking for tape players are those interested in listening to books on tape,” says Shawn Mullen, manager of the Car Toys outlet on North Sullivan. “There aren’t as many people out there looking for a tape player for anything more than that.”