BBC Radio 4 this month is airing a new, sixth series of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, 40 years after the broadcast of the first series in 1978. Fans in the United States might have an easier time downloading the podcast from a client based here rather than trying to listen directly from BBC Radio 4. The Stitcher podcast client, for instance, offers several BBC Radio 4 programs, among them Comedy of the Week. Enthusiastic fans of the series will find a way to listen.
The complete first series from BBC Radio 4 is available for listening, and it truly does the best job with the material of all the different formats, radio or television or print or motion picture. Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the 1978 radio presentation, and the other formats followed. The BBC made it into a very good television program in 1981. The 2005 motion picture was not popular. In this country, public radio rebroadcast the BBC Radio 4 series, and public television did the same for the BBC television adaptation.
A representation of the personal electronic device used by Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Computer graphic by Nicosmos.
From the 1981 BBC television adaptation of The Hitchihker’s Guide to the Galaxy, protagonist Arthur Dent meets the planet designer, Slartibartfast.
Rebroadcast in this country of original BBC radio programming is nothing new now, but in the 1970s and 80s it was fairly novel because at that time there was still some original programming being produced for radio by American public broadcasters and private outfits. There was Earplay on NPR, which were dramas based on original material and adaptations, and there was the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, a program of thrillers. Those American radio programs shut down in the 1980s, and since then very little original programming has come out of America. Britain, on the other hand, has a comparatively lively radio program production lineup, and as proof there is the sixth series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (with a cameo by renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking no less), airing in March 2018, forty years on from the first series. Fans of the show on this side of the Atlantic are glad the BBC radio crews are still at it, and if the latest series is anywhere near as enjoyable a listen as the first series, then their efforts will have been well worthwhile.
— Techly
This is a golden age for listening to audiobooks on portable electronic devices like smartphones and iPods, but the high price of audiobooks still holds them back from becoming as popular as electronic books or printed books. Before the inclusion of compact solid state storage on portable devices, audiobook listeners were encumbered with multiple compact discs (CDs) or cassette tapes for each book. The combination of compressed audio formats with high capacity compact storage has unlocked a perfect setting for listeners to take advantage of audiobook downloads from the internet and then enjoy a seamless listening experience any time and anywhere.
While the marriage of hardware technology with software format is now ideal for enjoying audiobooks, the pricing remains a stumbling block. Regular prices can start at $15 and go on up to $100. In any case, the audiobook price is always the highest of any of the formats, from hardcover or paperback print to ebook. Production costs for publishers are higher naturally because of the need for voice talent, production personnel, and recording facilities. It may be that to produce a truly professional result the costs cannot be lowered, and therefore audiobook prices will remain high. That would be a shame, since the technological moment has never been better and that has in turn increased demand. If increased demand does not drive the price down, then most likely audiobook sales will hit a wall, and new listeners will no longer be drawn to the format.
Sunday Afternoon, an 1861 painting by Albert Anker (1831-1910).
There are some alternatives to the business model of publishers producing audiobooks themselves or licensing their books to production studios, a model resulting in high overhead costs which increase the prices of best sellers and niche books alike. One alternative encourages authors to engage voice talent and production facilities and staff more or less on their own, knocking down the overhead costs. An author could still go for high concept production, but most have not. This business model has had the effect of increasing the overall amount of titles with audiobook versions, and at better prices than the standard publishers’ audiobook versions. It seems the publishing houses have been unable to take advantage of the audiobook’s golden age on account of their lumbering dinosaur steps, and a more nimble approach was needed.
Another alternative is the free model of LibriVox, staffed by volunteer readers using their home studios. The books they read are all in the public domain, and are free to download, with no digital rights management encumbrances. LibriVox is a laudable project, and even though there are no modern best sellers available for listening, the collection of classic literature is extensive. As can be expected with volunteer readers producing their efforts themselves from probably quite modest facilities, the results are wildly uneven, sometimes within the same audiobook, since LibriVox occasionally parcels out different chapters to several readers. Listening to LibriVox audiobooks is therefore a hit or miss experience which can be useful all the same in filling in gaps for a listener, especially when it comes to the classics.
The enjoyment of listening to a great storyteller goes back to childhood individually, and to the beginning of history for the human race as a whole. It appears the audiobook industry has settled on the monthly subscription model as its most effective way to sell to listeners. Relatively few people are interested in buying titles outright considering the high prices. Subscription rates for only one or two audiobook downloads per month are also high, but at $10 to $20 they seem easier to swallow. The public library is yet another alternative for downloading audiobooks, although because of budget cutbacks libraries are having more difficulty than ever stocking a selection of audiobooks comparable to their print book inventory. For an audiobook fan with a middle class or slimmer amount of disposable income, putting together a home audiobook collection like a roomful of long playing records or several bookcases filled with paperback books is probably not feasible. For a frequent listener, the rental plan offerings are not very filling at only one or two audiobooks per month. A little of this and a little of that might be the best strategy for an audiobook fan with shallow pockets – a monthly subscription if it can be had at a good rate, an active library card, and an electronic bookmark for the LibriVox website.
— Techly
