Cory Doctorow is writing columns for Publishers Weekly. In this month’s column Doctorow discusses his love of audiobooks and the difficuties he’s encountered in getting them into his fan’s ears. I’m going to quote several paragraphs of this excellent essay, you can check out the full article |HERE|.
I just flat-out love audiobooks. There’s nothing like a story being read aloud to you as you go for a long walk or go for a drive. For years, I’ve been reading my short stories, articles, and even a couple of my novels for my podcast, which has thousands of weekly listeners. So I was delighted when my agent sold audio rights to my fourth novel, Little Brother, to Random House Audio. RHA does great books, and the actor they tapped for the reading, Kirby Heyborne, did a superb job.
Unfortunately, distribution hasn’t gone smoothly. RHA didn’t want to do physical CDs—understandable, perhaps, as time was too short. Besides, CD sales are in free-fall while digital delivery using Audible is skyrocketing. Why sell antiquated CDs to an audience that mostly wants to play them on portable MP3 players?
I’m great with that in theory, but in practice it’s more complicated. I used to be a huge Audible customer. When I switched operating systems, however, I discovered that Audible’s DRM wouldn’t work on my Linux computer. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on my Audible collection, so I set out to convert it all to MP3. That required playing each book in real-time through the computer’s sound card, recapturing it with the AudioHijack program, and then saving it as an MP3. It took a solid month of running three old Macs 24/7 to get all of my audiobooks out of Audible’s proprietary wrapper and into the universal MP3 format so that I could take my investment with me to a new digital home.
Of course, I probably could have “pirated” the same audiobooks more quickly—after all, it’s not hard to find cracked Audible titles on the Internet. This is why I can’t understand why publishers or writers opt for DRM. It clearly doesn’t stop real pirates from copying, and it locks good customers into the DRM vendor’s ecosystem. I wouldn’t sell my books through a bookseller who demanded readers only enjoy them on a chair from Wal-Mart; why would I sell my audiobooks on terms that insist my listeners only use devices approved by a DRM vendor?
So, RHA and I went to Audible and politely asked them to sell Little Brother without DRM. They turned us down flat. And because Audible is the only retailer who can sell on iTunes, that closed the door on the largest distribution channel in the world for audiobooks.
For my next book, Makers, we tried again. This time Audible agreed to carry the title without DRM. Hooray! Except now there was a new problem: Apple refused to allow DRM-free audiobooks in the Apple Store—yes, the same Apple that claims to hate DRM. Okay, we thought, we’ll just sell direct through Audible, at least it’s a relatively painless download process, right? Not quite. It turns out that buying an audiobook from Audible requires a long end-user license agreement (EULA) that bars users from moving their Audible books to any unauthorized device or converting them to other formats. Instead of DRM, they accomplish the lock-in with a contract. |READ THE REST HERE|
This 1976 interview was recorded for HOUR 25, a long running Science Fiction radio show broadcast out of KPFK, a Los Angeles radio station. I couldn’t find an MP3 version online, but someone has done up a multi-segmented youtube version. One of the issues discussed is author remuneration. Vance speaks frankly about how even though he is ‘quite an established writer’ in the field of Science Fiction and Mystery, he doesn’t have enough income from either genre. Other reports, also mentioned in the interview, point out that those SF authors (like Isaac Asimov and Lin Carter) who have made a decent living via their writing, made most of that money writing non-fiction articles or selling the movie rights to their fiction. Perhaps even more interesting, near the end of the interview a caller asks if Vance has read A Quest for Simbilis by Michael Shea (a sequel to one of Vance’s own books, it stars a Vance character). In response Vance says that he hadn’t read it but that he’d still given Shea the go-ahead to try to get it published when Shea had asked. Then he invites the caller to write his own sequel! Interesting eh?
This audiobook is a must listen for pretty much everyone who visits SFFaudio. It’s a fascinating history of the word and concepts of “FREE.” This is a word that affects you every day of your life. It’s a magic word, that creates fear, desire, curiosity, skepticism, love and hatred. If for no other reason listen for all the SFF genre mentions (though Anderson accidentally misnames one of Neil Gaiman’s books).
You’ll learn a ton by listening to this free book, I sure did! And, I bet if you listen to just 10 minutes you’ll have to listen to the whole thing.
In keeping with the recursive nature of the title, the UNABRIDGED audiobook version is FREE on Audible.com. It’s also available in a Zipped Folder for download from Wired magazine’s website |GET THE UNABRIDGED VERSION ZIPPED VERSION HERE|, from the publisher’s website (Hyperion Books) |HERE|. And it’s FREE in the Audiobook section of iTunes store too (that’s probably a first). Lastly it’s also available as an iTunes podcast too – do a search for it in iTunes (beware that the files are not ordered properly).
Free: The Future of a Radical Price
By Chris Anderson; Read by Chris Anderson FREE Audible Download – Approx. 7 Hours 2 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Hyperion Audio
Published: July 2009
Provider: Audible.com The New York Times best-selling author heralds the future of business in Free. In his revolutionary best seller, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson demonstrated how the online marketplace creates niche markets, allowing products and consumers to connect in a way that has never been possible before. Now, in Free, he makes the compelling case that, in many instances, businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Far more than a promotional gimmick, Free is a business strategy that may well be essential to a company’s survival. The costs associated with the growing online economy are trending toward zero at an incredible rate. Never in the course of human history have the primary inputs to an industrial economy fallen in price so fast and for so long. Just think that in 1961 a single transistor cost $10; now Intel’s latest chip has two billion transistors and sells for $300 (or 0.000015 cents per transistor – effectively too cheap to price). The traditional economics of scarcity just don’t apply to bandwidth, processing power, and hard-drive storage. Yet this is just one engine behind the new Free, a reality that goes beyond a marketing gimmick or a cross-subsidy. Anderson also points to the growth of the reputation economy; explains different models for unleashing the power of Free; and shows how to compete when your competitors are giving away what you’re trying to sell. In Free, Chris Anderson explores this radical idea for the new global economy and demonstrates how this revolutionary price can be harnessed for the benefit of consumers and businesses alike.
As we know by now many books, stories, TV episodes, movies, and even the Apollo moon landing footage can just somehow just get lost by the archives department of any major organization. Whether this is from mis-filing, mis-communication, oversight problems, theft, general incompetence, idiocy or other error – the missing media means it cant be rebroadcast or reprinted. This is an issue that’s come up again and again for the classic televisions series Doctor Who. Whole serials have been found around the world in the hands of fans and affiliate stations. This time this story is coming from a BBC Radio so I thought I’d share it with you. It’s also a nice thank you/shout-out to loyal BBC listeners who help “the Beeb” serve its audience all the better.
In recent years the BBC has been looking to home recordings made by BBC fans. As is done with any medium, fans make copies, either photocopying a story, recording the shows off the air, dubbing tapes for sharing or (dare I say it making torrents) so their friends and fellow fans. Of this phenomenon here’s what Mary Kalemkerian, Head of Programmes for BBC Radio 7, wrote in the September 4, 2009 BBC7 email newsletter:
“As most of you are aware, not all of the old programmes broadcast on BBC radio have been retained by the sound archive, for various reasons, and although we do not have the resources to deal with all of the “off-air” recordings we are offered, if there is a series with perhaps one or two episodes missing, we sometimes ask listeners if they happen to have kept any home-recordings which we could try to clean up for broadcast. Recent examples have resulted in us acquiring previously “missing” episodes of The Long Hot Satsuma, and Parsley Sidings.
Only 4 episodes of Parsley Sidings had been retained by the BBC, but thanks to one of our listeners, 15 further episodes were returned to us. The writer of the series, Jim Eldridge, was of course delighted. Another of Jim’s radio comedies, currently being broadcast on Radio 7, is Tony’s, set in a hairdressers and starring Victor Spinetti. The first series of Tony’s is in 6 episodes, but unfortunately episode 5 is missing from the archive!
There was also a second series of Tony’s but, sadly, no episodes from series 2 have been retained.
So if any of you ardent radio comedy fans happen to have a copy of episode 5 of Tony’s stored in your collections, or any of series 2, please e-mail to let us know, and if possible, we will arrange to have them digitised for broadcast.”
Then in this week’s newsletter (September 11, 2009) Kalemkerian writes:
“In last week’s newsletter, I asked if any of you radio comedy fans happened to have episode 5 of the sit-com Tony’s, which is missing from the BBC Sound Archive. Only minutes after my newsletter was posted on the Radio 7 website, Kevin Askew from Northampton e-mailed us to say that he indeed had a copy of the requested episode. Kevin has now sent the CD to us, and it has been sent off to be technically checked. We also received an e-mail from listener/collector David Moore telling us that, in addition to series 1, he also has the complete series 2. So thanks to those listeners, we hope to be able to bring you both full series of Tony’s.”
I think it’s great that the BBC is acting sensibly, responding to their audience’s needs by searching out these old shows. I also think it’s terrific that the BBC is now, if only tacitly, admitting that fan recordings and sharing is something that we should be doing. Wouldn’t it be great if all such corporations acted so sensibly?
As you’re aware I’ve been following the Canadian Copyright Consultations run by Industry Minster Tony Clement and Heritage Minster James Moore. The most recent one, held in Toronto yesterday, was the most vehement of them all. The participants were heavily weighted towards music industry executives and lawyers (I counted at least 19 of them). They told us how badly their industry has been suffering and how their lawyers don’t have the legislation they need to deal with it. Execs from Sony Music Canada, Warner Music Canada and Universal Music Canada all spoke. Nearly all of them asked the minister to pass the ten year old WIPO treaties that make the breaking of DRM a copyright crime.
Several other non-music industry attendees brought up some non-music related points too. Most of these were not concerned about propping up a dying business model, but rather with how to prevent making criminals out of Canadians or how a new copyright law can address the new industries that technology allows. The librarians, for example, had some very serious concerns about the ability to provide services to patrons with any law that protects digital locks and lists statutory damages for their violation. A few others pointed out the problem of Crown Copyright [why don’t we just replace it with creative commons?]. Others insisted that the new copyright law, whatever its content, must be crystal clear and easy to understand – ‘spend some money on education’ – they said [this too is a great idea]. Several folks thought any new legislation should definitely address the problem of “fair dealing” [that we have no parody exemption in Canada is nuts]. A web commenter also suggested that because of the long response time, the current standard of getting permission from a copyright holder, was not-feasible for photocopied materials used in classrooms [this needs to be addressed by any new copyright bill]. And one of the smartest points was from a software guy who pointed out that a ‘retroactive term extensions doesn’t ‘encourage dead artist to create more work.’ It really needed to be said.
Below is a chronological sampling of some of the less representative comments (I’ve included just a few of the many music industry execs and lawyers who spoke). And, I’ve included one commenter’s speeches in full; Jonathan Dry’s words will really hit home with some of our readers in particular. I thought his comments were absolutely terrific.
Jamie Kidd (jazz musician) – “my new album won’t be marketed in Canada”
Martha Rans (outreach lawyer) – “return to Vancouver and hold a town hall”
Sophie Milman (jazz artist) – “extend the copying levy to iPods”
Dan Glover (lawyer) – “I make my living by copyright”
Steve Kane (President of Warner Music Canada since 2004) “When I began my tenure as President of President of Warner Music Canada we had about 180 employees. We currently have 85.” [woots from the crowd]
Leslie Weir (librarian @ University Of Ottawa) – “copyright law must not make it illegal to circumvent a digital lock”
Rob Bolton (digital marketing manager @ Warner Music Canada) – “what we have in this country is truly a lawless society and it’s very difficult to build legitimate businesses here”
Paul Vett (BlackBerry software developer) – “it’d be nice to drop some of the rhetoric and focus on the nuances because it’s quite complicated”
Jonathan Dry – (Mechanical Designer) –“I’m a mechanical designer from Mississauga. I don’t work in the entertainment industry. [audience claps] I believe we are in this situation because of eternal copyright laws. I’ll start by saying that copyright is meant to foster a broad and diverse culture of creation and derivative works in a country. And we don’t have that now. The eternal copyright has created a vacuum and pulled away the culture of the people from the general populace. I grew up in the 1990s, that was how it was then. In its place was placed a load of mass produced rubbish… music… you could turn on the TV any time [and hear it?]. It’s pretty much the same nowadays and this damages the youth. It takes away a formative decade, the teenage years. Instead of creating a culture of production and of personal achievement we’re given self destructive teenage rebellion. We’ve put all the power to create culture into the hands of a few corporations with eternal copyright. They just buy it up and that’s the end of it.
If we’re going to reform the system… [looks at the timer] three minutes… Okay. As far as the public domain goes we need shorter copyright terms. [points to the timer] Thank you. [moderator offers an apology]
This book [holds up Blood Of The Gods and Other Stories] is published in Mississauga, Ontario. It is by Robert E. Howard. His work is falling into the public domain. [holds up The Coming Of Conan The Cimmerian] He is most known as the creator of Conan The Barbarian. If you like books about screaming barbarians and monsters it’s great stuff. There’s a publishing boom going on, of his work, right now. Del Rey [has] his stuff with annotations, scholarship, letters, all sorts of other stuff – because everything else, the original stories, are now in the public domain. And guys like these guys in Mississauga [indicates Blood Of The Gods] are publishing it. It’s being driven by the entrance of his work into the public domain.
What we need is shorter copyright terms. This is going to drive innovation. Canada could attract a large number of publishers and artists from all over the world if we reduce copyright terms. We are sitting on a gold mine people. It’s being withheld from the general public by a small amount of copyright holders. If we were to loosen that up there would be a cultural explosion and industrial explosion in that industry. I would ask that the Conservative government to go back to your entrepreneurial roots. We have a small publisher in Mississauga making money from the public domain, it’s also driving big ones in the states.
[points to audience member] – no interruptions please. Okay?
We need to go back and allow these entrepreneurial companies, these small startups, to grow big. To exist! Because, right now, they can’t.”
Denis McGrath (TV writer and blogger) – “as an artist I want my work to be seen by as many people as possible”
Daniel Seyer (student at University Of Ontario Institute of Technology)- “hello music industry” [audience laughs] I’m a student… [audience member says something] “Hello entertainment industry I guess. It’s nice for everyone to be here” – “keep the playing field open and let the market decide” – “extend tariffs [levies] to hard drives and blank media” – “put a tax on bandwidth” – “don’t do anything that the Americans are doing” [audience laughs]
Simon Shaw [movie pirate wearing a Fair Copyright For Canada t-shirt] – “I operate six terabyte servers of movies that I share freely with my friends all around the world. Most of your works are on my servers”
Speaker #143 (anonymous lawyer) – “The previous speaker mentioned this was ‘not a debate about two extremes’ I take offense to that. … On the one hand we continue to be the laughing stock of the world through our outdated copyright laws, and continue to be a cesspool for online pirates such as the last speaker [woots and claps from the audience] or we update the copyright act as the rest of the modernized world has done to protect creator’s rights.”
Speaker #43? or #93? (anonymous speaker) – [approaches the microphone] “…kinda funny how there’s so many people from the music industry here – not many normal people.” “The corporations are trying to extend copyright… [something someone in the audience flusters this speaker] …any Cinar executives here? – Ya? You guys never steal.”
Tony Clement (Minister Of Industry) – “we got through it all in one piece. It has not degenerated into a U.S. health care town hall meeting”
Watch the whole video for yourself in the (very lame) |WMV| format.
“I’ve just finished listening to the unabridged, 10-hour audiobook of Sandman Slim, which is available on a single MP3 CD without DRM from Brilliance Audio. The reading is performed by Macleod Andrews, who does the narration in a perfect whiskey voice that’s 80 percent Tom Waits, 20 percent Clint Eastwood. The performance and production are marvellous, a great interpretive reading that really brought the novel to life for me. I also love that I could get it without having to suffer through either DRM through one of the audiobook download stores or through ripping ten CDs’ worth of material, which is how I normally get my audiobooks onto my computer.”
Cory Doctorow is writing columns for Publishers Weekly. In this month’s column Doctorow discusses his love of audiobooks and the difficuties he’s encountered in getting them into his fan’s ears. I’m going to quote several paragraphs of this excellent essay, you can check out the full article |HERE|.
Steve Kane (President of 
Daniel Seyer (student at 
Simon Shaw [movie pirate wearing a Fair Copyright For Canada t-shirt] – “I operate six terabyte servers of movies that I share freely with my friends all around the world. Most of your works are on my servers”
