Are Downloadable Audio Books Better Than Cassettes or Compact Discs?
Audio book titles first made their appearance a few years ago in the form of audio cassette tapes and then on compact disc, or CDs, as we now call them, and despite the higher quality of the CD recording people still preferred to listen to books on their cassette recorders. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that you could restart where you left off with your audiotape, but this was much harder to do with compact discs. Nowadays,of course, there are modern and more advanced CD players that can save your location when you turn off, allowing you to resume later.
Audio cassettes can also hold more content, over 90 minutes and more, as opposed to 75 minutes for most CDs. So the only thing going for your average CD was the much better sound quality, but, because audio books are mainly narration, buyers don't see why they should pay more for CD quality when audio cassettes are good enough.
So where does downloadable audio fit into this equation? Well, in my opinion, it is superior to either cassettes or CDs for the following reasons.
One, with modern mp3 players or ipods, or even our mobile phones, we can literally store gigabytes of audio content that we have downloaded from our computer. So instead of needing several CDs or cassettes to store one book we can store hundreds of books on a tiny memory stick that will fit into either a top jacket pocket or a purse.
Two, an audio book download is far cheaper than the same book on either CD or tape simply because there are lower production costs and no packaging costs.
Three, they are an instant download and you can start listening immediately, even while you are still downloading. You don't have to go to the shop to buy, and you don't have to order by mail order or on the internet and then have to wait for the postman to deliver.
Four, being a digital download the sound quality is every bit as good as that of a CD. In fact the best audio book websites even give you a choice of which quality you want to download. If your in a hurry download a lower quality, or, a higher sound quality will take a little longer to download.
These are just some of the reasons why I think audio downloads are superior to either cassettes or CDs. Of course I still like a good old fashioned hard backed book every now and then, old habits die hard.
David Sharp runs the successful Very Best Audio Books website where you can download audio books from a range of over 8000 of the most popular audio titles, here at: http://www.VeryBestAudioBooks.com
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