Simply Audiobooks Inc.

I’m not a fan of podcasts in general. I’ve always thought they’re kind of niche and a stunningly large number of them are atrocious.

What I can’t figure out is why so many people create podcasts. It’s not like writing blogs, which apparently any idiot can do – now you have to create some listenable content and produce it too. Maybe podcasts are just providing easy production for people who think they’re talented and have no ability to judge artistic merit. Everyone wants to be a star, and the fact that the odds are soooo incredibly stacked against them doesn’t deter them.Must be the same as why otherwise sane people buy lottery tickets.

For now, I’m going to continue to ignore podcasts for personal use, but watch carefully to see if anything interesting emerges. I hear that single-celled amoebas eventually turned into Sophia Loren, so anything’s possible.

I’m not particularly a fan of MP3-CD audiobooks, but I managed to snag my first one earlier today, “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert Heinlein. Some of you may not know that we have a pretty large collection of these books, they’re under a specific genre called MP3 CD titles.

This one’s pretty good so far. I can’t get over feeling a bit odd that I only had to put one CD into my 6 CD deck and I’m going to be occupied for the next couple of weeks. It either feels like I’m cheating, or not getting value out of the CD changer system, I can’t decide which. Anyway, the book is ok so far, but being a bit of a sci-fi fan, I’m annoyed the book description calls this “The most famous science fiction novel ever written.” I mean, it’s well known, but come on. Most famous has got to go to “2001 a Space Odyssey”, no? Doesn’t mean it’s the best of course. That has to be “Foundation” by Asimov. Poke poke. I know that’s going to get some sci-fi fans out there riled up.

Today our CEO asked me how the Bzz campaign was going. “How many agents you got?”, I answered “um, 300 or so so far”. Then he asked “How many of them agents done referred you any customers?”. He doesn’t actually sound like that, or talk with a piece of straw in his mouth, but I like the image. I managed to mumble something, make some hand gestures, and head rapidly in the direction of the restroom. I can detect a seething mass of agents out there waiting for their audiobooks to arrive. First ones should be hitting right now. I can almost hear the clicking of CD players across the nation.

This is getting ridiculous. Here I am not even particularly a fan of Dan Brown and ‘Deception Point’ is wreaking havoc on my life. First I suffered an entire 90 minute commute one day last week when I realized I’d forgotten part II of the book at home and I ran out of part I 10 minutes into the drive. I spent the whole drive sulking.

And today as I was driving to the airport to catch a flight, I couldn’t resist sitting in the parking lot of the airport to finish the chapter, then had to dash to the airport to catch my flight.

Turns out I could have saved myself the exertion. The flight’s delayed and I’m sitting typing this in the lounge and wondering what happened next (in the story). I really need to start bringing a CD player with me on plane trips. I know after this I’m not listening to any more Dan Brown. I don’t need this kind of stress.

This was an important week for Simply Audiobooks progress towards global audiobook domination. We opened two retail locations in the Toronto area, and so far reactions have been enthusiastic. One store, formerly Spoken Word in downtown Toronto, we acquired from its previous owner, the other has been opened from scratch, in the western suburb of Oakville. You can see the locations on the home page of our Canadian web site.

Toronto was already a popular spot for audiobook stores, but it is now the highest density audiobook store per capita city in the world. Unless there’s an audiobook store in some tiny city somewhere… hmm, hadn’t thought of that. Anyway, since well over 90% of our business is in the US, this is a limited experiment for the company as a whole. But our plans certainly don’t stop here. Wait til you see Simply Audiobooks soft drinks, sportswear, and our airline. Someday we may buy some land and start a country. We’ll call it audiobookloverland. And then I can write blog entries that start with, “Once upon a time in Audiobookloverland…”. Has a ring to it, I think.

We started a word of mouth campaign yesterday with a company called bzzagent. As a result, hordes of inquisitive potential word-of-mouth spreaders have overrun our website seeking to discover if SAB is cool, or, um, not.

If you’re a bzzagent yourself, welcome to Simply Audiobooks. I consider you guys (and gals) kind of like Olympic Athletes. You’re still amateurs in the lexicon, but among the best at what you do. I hope you like the service. And if you have any questions at all, make sure you call us. We love answering the phone, and we take requests.

I was on a flight last night and my eyes hurt, but I couldn’t resist trying the fancy new on-demand video system on the plane. So I found an episode of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, started it up, and promptly fell asleep.

What surprised me is that I woke up a few minutes later during a laugh-track crescendo, and started to listen to the show with my eyes closed. It was hilarious. There were a few moments where it was clear something visually funny was going on, but I was too tired to bother looking. The show was plenty funny without the video. I’m pretty sure that the reverse wouldn’t be true. Audio books from TV shows, it’s a start!

I could completely visualize the characters, right down to the expressions on Robert’s face. When the show was over, I tried to do the same thing with another tv show, some episode of CSI. But I fell asleep for real with that one. Of course, I don’t like CSI anyway.

I read today that a) iTunes is offering Disney movie downloads, b) Amazon is offering movie downloads, and c) that as a result, Netflix’s days are numbered.

Hardly.

I write about this because we started our business with the same unlimited rental model that Netflix popularized (as opposed to invented, but that’s another subject). The fact that there are now additional ways to consume video content doesn’t mean the death of physical product for a looooong time, and maybe not even then.

When email came along, people didn’t stop using paper. When cars came along, people didn’t stop walking. Audiobooks don’t cannibalize regular book sales (the audiences are different). And so it is that having additional channels to consume movies and audiobooks will simply increase consumption, with minor balancing of the channels.

With audiobooks, downloadable product is dramatically increasing listenership (50% of all audiobook downloaders are new to audiobooks), not simply stealing share from CDs and cassettes. There’s plenty of room for everyone at this table.

All this fuss about downloading video into your TV using some fancy gizmo from Apple, or Microsoft, or Nextbigthing Inc. annoys me. We already have downloadable video – it’s called satellite. If 500 channels and video-on-demand aren’t enough for you, then maybe Ritalin is in your immediate future.

Here’s my prediction for the domination of downloadable content for audiobooks. The day I can walk into an American car dealership and buy a car with a built-in harddrive and something like Media Player, then 10 years from that day you’ll see more than 50% of audiobook consumption via the net.

And at that point, the company offering you the product is likely to be the same one offering it now (i.e. us). Netflix isn’t just sitting around waiting to be beaten by the likes of Amazon and Apple. They’re just a bit smarter and a bit more prudent.

 

Driving in to work this morning, I was a bit miffed because I’d gotten a late start and I dreaded the drive in at the height of rush hour. But my goodness, a faster drive in at 8:30am I have never seen! I was actually upset that I didn’t have more time to listen to “Deception Point” by Dan Brown.

I opened the mailer with a tinge of disappointment when I first received the book – I hadn’t been pleased with Digital Fortress and I was starting to think Brown is a two-hit wonder (Angels and Demons wasn’t bad). But this one’s got me double-checking the timer on my CD player to make sure I have lots of CD-time left (I’m enjoying it that much).

But what’s up with this traffic? Traffic is usually lighter during any holiday week, but this is even better than usual. Two of my closest friends are on holidays this week. Perhaps this is the last chance for most of us to get away from it all before the return of the ‘work’ season, and it’s being taken advantage of by more people than I’d think. Huh.

Well I for one won’t be lulled. If I start enjoying the next couple of days, then I just know the return to normal next week will feel even worse. So I’m going to drive extra slow tomorrow. If you’re behind me, no need to say thank you, I know you appreciate it.