Collection Developments @ Sno-Isle

The iPod will soon be compatible with our downloadable audiobooks!

CEO Steve Potash had this to say in a press release.

March 18, 2008
Dear Library Partner,
Preview of new format announcements at PLA
As many of you are aware, there have been recent announcements and news stories in the audiobook industry
regarding major retailers’ and publishers’ moves toward DRM free audiobook content in the MP3 format.
I have BIG NEWS to share with you. As a result of listening to your requests and those of your patrons,
OverDrive will be demonstrating at PLA in Minneapolis a new audio format for library lending . . . OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks. We expect the titles, services, and software for the new format to be ready for your library to start adding to your OverDrive digital media collection by the end of June. This will be followed with the release of OverDrive Media Console for the Mac.
More supported devices including iPod
OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks will be compatible with all models of iPods, iPhone, iPod Touch, Zune, and the thousands of other MP3 players and devices on the market.
The initial catalog of OverDrive MP3 Audiobook titles

OverDrive is working to promote the benefits and market opportunities of MP3 audiobooks in the library to
publishers and content suppliers. At launch, however, there will be a limited catalog of titles as not all of our publishing partners will offer content in OverDrive MP3 format. The initial OverDrive MP3 Audiobook catalog will include thousands of award-winning titles, unabridged fiction, classics, children, nonfiction and other genres.
As OverDrive and libraries demonstrate to publishers and authors the commercial benefits of the sale of their materials in this format, the MP3 catalog will grow quickly. We do expect, however, that several major publishers will withhold their titles from this program for the foreseeable future. 1 Accordingly, OverDrive
plans to continue its support of DRM protected audio content (.WMA), alongside its introduction of the MP3 format.
OverDrive Media Console Updates & OverDrive Media Console for the Mac
In conjunction with the launch of OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks, we will be releasing an updated version of OverDrive Media Console (Ver 3.0). The same wonderful user experience you and your patrons have come to expect from OverDrive audiobooks will continue for OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks - including the ability to download material in parts, manage downloaded content, and use the Transfer Wizard for the iPod. Later this year, we will be releasing OverDrive Media Console for the Mac which will also support OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks.

Updated messages and policies for OverDrive download media.

We are working to develop new messages and protocols on library download pages, as well as within OverDrive Media Console to remind users that all download titles, including MP3 titles, are subject to U.S.
and international copyright laws. These messages will include information on permissible uses and the specific rights patrons have to the download title during the lending period. Patrons will be prompted to delete and destroy any and all copies of the content at the end of the lending period and instructed that all download titles are for patrons’ personal, non-commercial use.
Instituting these and similar policies for library lending of MP3 audiobook content will encourage additional publishers to grant rights to distribute their titles in OverDrive MP3 Audiobook format. In order to continue to offer content in the MP3 format, we need your help and support in communicating to your patrons and
communities the importance of respecting the permitted uses to download titles.
Timetable
OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks are not yet available in Content Reserve for you to see or add to your digital media platform. We will notify you when these materials are available and provide instructions to your library if you are in interested in adding OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks to your catalog. We will continue to support OverDrive Audiobooks in the current WMA format for several years to come.
In closing, our success has been a direct result of listening and working with you. Please call me to discuss how we can continue to make your OverDrive digital media service a success for you and your community.
If you or any of your library members are attending PLA in Minneapolis, please drop by booth #1135 where we will be demonstrating OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks, transfer to iPod, and providing a preview of OverDrive Media Console for Mac. I hope to see you there.
Best regards,
Steve Potash & Team OverDrive

1 Many of you may have heard and read about Random House’s announcement to make their audiobook titles available
without DRM in the MP3 format. This announcement, however, was strictly limited to retail outlets, and specifically excluded distribution to libraries, “We are not making any changes at all to our library digital download program….. .
To be clear: all titles distributed in download form from our Books on Tape and Listening Library lists through our … existing library distribution partners, OverDrive … will continue to have DRM.” (Excerpt from February 21, 2008 Open Letter from Madeline McIntosh, Publisher, Random House Audio)”

Piracy protection otherwise known as DRM–this paves the way for iPod compatibility in the very near future.

Check out what the New York Times has to say.

 Publishers phase out audiobook piracy protection

SAN FRANCISCO — Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anticopying software on digital downloads of audio books.

The trend will allow consumers who download audio books to freely transfer these digital files between devices like their computers, iPods and cellphones — and conceivably share them with others. Dropping copying restrictions could also allow a variety of online retailers to start to sell audio book downloads.

The publishers hope this openness could spark renewed growth in the audio book business, which generated $923 million in sales last year, according to the Audio Publishers Association.

Random House was the first to announce it was backing away from D.R.M., or digital rights management software, the protective wrapping placed around digital files to make them difficult to copy. In a letter sent to its industry partners last month, Random House, the world’s largest publisher, announced it would offer all of its audio books as unprotected MP3 files beginning this month, unless retail partners or authors specified otherwise.

Penguin Group, the second-largest publisher in the United States behind Random House, now appears set to follow suit. Dick Heffernan, publisher of Penguin Audio, said the company would make all of its audio book titles available for download in the MP3 format on eMusic, the Web’s second-largest digital music service after iTunes.  Read the full story

Random House audio books will begin selling their titles without DRM soon. Why should you care? DRM is the stuff that makes our OverDrive audiobooks incompatible with the iPod, since Apple uses a different version of DRM, than Microsoft. Yes, its one of those Apple vs. Microsoft things…. So, if other publishers follow suit and choose to sell their titles without DRM, theres no obstacle to prevent our downloadable audio books being compatible with iPod. Of course its never quite as simple as it seems on the surface, but I feel optomistic about things, and can’t wait to see what OverDrive will have to say about this news, and its implications later this year at Digipalooza.

consumers and public libraries?  Today’s Seattle P.I. says that while Amazon has sold out on the Kindle the reviews from users have only given it 3.5 stars.  At the heart of the matter is price and limited functionality since you can spend $4oo dollars and get a blackberry or an iPhone that will browse the web, store your music, and books, and oh yeah by the way–its a phone.  The buzz around the Kindle was huge and at least one library is already lending Kindles to its customers.  I applaud them for being responsive to the public interests and showing the library is the place to go for cool stuff.  I just wonder if the Kindle will go the way of the Rocketbook.  Time will tell.

Warner Music soon will be selling its catalog through the Amazon mp3 store without DRM.  Now 3 of the big 4 music publishers are making their digital music available without DRM which can only be a good thing for OverDrive who provides us with downloadable music.  I wonder how long it will be before our patrons will be able to download pop music from the library website.

Jessamyn West led me to this post by Mark Weinberger on the future of reading. Mark points out some chilling aspects of DRM using Amazon’s new Kindle terms of service agreement. I love gadgets and e-content as much as if not more than the next guy but DRM just really brings me down.