Monday, October 27, 2008
Could Stanza Inspire Free Audiobook App for Iphone ?
You may remember my review of a new iPhone App, the Stanza, LexCycle's digital reader that provides free access to books in public domain. Stanza's convenient features, such as customizable layouts, opened a new world of classic literature to every iPhone user, including classic works such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
As a result, Stanza is becoming one of the most popular apps, but I think an even better version could be developed. During my 10-hour road trip last weekend, I realized the the rigors of a long journey are eased with a talented narrator reading a good audiobook. That's what made me think of the next great app- free audio books.
Obviously, a developer or publisher would have to negotiate a deal to compensate authors and publishers, Currently, most of the best-selling audiobooks sell for a price between $25 to $35 dollars per title at the iTunes' store, but imagine if you could access classic and contemporary audiobooks for free, and the only catch was that you had to listen to a 30 to 60 second promo of ads between each chapter. (An ad revenue model similar to Hulu's video).
Perhaps the best and only way to test the model would require a major publisher, such as Simon& Schuster or Random House, to take on the role of developer. The first version could include the top-10 selling titles from that publisher, or 10-20 classic works from the past 20 years,featuring five titles from four different genres.
I think it's only a matter of time before we're listening to some of our favorite stories for free.
By Matt O'Hern at 11:52 AM | Comments (5)
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