Formats
Audiobooks are distributed on CDs, cassette tapes, MP3-formatted audio CDs (MP3CDs), downloadable digital formats (e.g., MP3 (.mp3), Windows Media Audio (.wma), Advanced Audio Coding (.aac)) and preloaded digital in which the audio content is preloaded and sold together with a hardware device.
In 1955 a German inventor introduced the Sound Book cassette system where instead of a magnetic tape the words and sounds were recorded on a continuous loop grooved tape similar to the old 8-track tape only it was picked back up like the old vinyl record stylus system. One Sound Book could hold eight hours of recordings. It never became widespread in use.
In 2005, cassette tape sales were 16% of the audiobook market, with CD sales accounting for 74% of the market and downloadable audio books accounting for approximately 9%. In the United States, a sales survey (performed by the Audio Publishers' Association in the summer of 2006 for the year 2005) estimated the industry to be worth 871 million US dollars.
A small number of books are recorded for radio broadcast, (radio programs serializing books), usually in abridged form and sometimes serialized, notably by the BBC. The advent of the Internet has introduced powerful means of delivery for audiobooks; many titles are now available on-line (for download on to computers, tablets, and phones, or one may listen to website audio streams without having to download anything).
Audiobooks may come as fully dramatized versions of the printed book, sometimes calling upon a complete cast, music, and sound effects. A dramatized audio adaptation of a book is effectively an audio drama.
Sometimes audiobook format is available simultaneously with book publication.
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