Saturday, March 31, 2007

Downloadable Audio Books: A Popular Trend

By Mark Eiland


Audio books are a recording of traditional books, read by a narrator. They are available in abridged and unabridged versions. The abridged books are altered at the narrators' discretion but still carry the original intent of the story. Unabridged titles are read word for word form the original printed text.


Audio books are gaining popularity all over the world for many reasons but mostly because you don't have to give up reading just because you are too busy. Many of us enjoy reading a good book and have favorite authors whose books you had to buy and carry with you all over the house in the hope that you will get the chance to open and read it as soon as you get the chance. Unfortunately when we read our whole body comes to a stand still as we engage the attention of the brain through the eyesight without which you cannot conduct other activities. However since the audio books have been introduced you can listen to your favorite book while doing other things like chores or driving. People who spend a large amount of time traveling find audio books to be an excellent way to put normally wasted time to good use. The fact that audio books can be listened to multiple times over several days helps with memory retention of the content. It is estimated that audio books produced $187 million in revenue last year and the projected sales for the near future is in the billions of dollars.


Downloadable audio books from a reliable source such as www.EarForAudiobooks.com is an economical alternative to joining a book of the month type club. The advantage of a downloadable audio book is that you can gain access to it at any time of the day and have the freedom to download the audio books immediately. So, you can have 24x7 downloadable audio books available and there is no need to wait for books to arrive after being shipped for delivery. What's more, there is no time limit nor are there any due dates and once you've downloaded the audio book you are the owner forever.


Many people today have embraced audio books for the sake of the trees being used to create the paper book besides the fact that they are extremely convenient not to mention easy to carry and store. You can listen to an audio book on your ipod or MP3 player by downloading to whole book on it, which fits in the bag or coat pocket.


Downloadable audio books are growing in popularity because they are easily accessible, affordable, and portable. They fit into today's busy lifestyles and the increase in sales is proof that more and more consumers are discovering audio books.

Mark Eiland is a 30-year veteran of the technology industry and an avid supporter of the use of audio books for schools, commuters, and for people visually impaired or with dyslexia. Mark is the owner of the audiobook store website http://www.earforaudiobooks.com which supplies over 5,000 downloadable audiobook titles covering a broad range of topics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Eiland

Downloadable Audio Book

Downloadable Audio Book - How To Change Playback Speed On MP3 Books And MP3 Voice Recordings Like A
By Lou Smith

Downloadable audio books (also called MP3 books) are timesaving, easily affordable, and portable. The flexible MP3 file format makes them useful in both entertaining and educating us when we are on-the-go. You probably already know it.

But did you know this?

You can save extra time when you listen to recorded-voice MP3 files by increasing the tempo of the MP3 file. And you can do it free to boot.

Why would you want to go the extra mile and speed up an MP3 file? If you are into listening to many MP3 voice recordings especially for education, cutting down on the time is takes to listen to them comes in handy.

Many advanced MP3 players have the options of varying the playback speed. But what if the choices change the tempo and pitch of the recording? You’ll hear a bunch of chipmunks as a result. And what about if you have a reliable MP3 player without the extra bells and whistles. Should you part with it and shell out some dough to buy a more advanced model? No worries. There’s a way around it.

In the following list of steps, learn how you can alter the playback speed of MP3 voice recordings without paying a dime for a new, fancy MP3 player, or … for anything else.

Here is the list of steps. Take a look:

1. Download the MP3 file and store it on your PC’s hard drive. Remember the file’s location.

2. If you already have the Audacity Program, great. If not, go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and download it from there. Follow the downloading and installation instructions.

3. You will need LAME MP3 Encoder file on your computer. You can download it at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/beta_windows under the “Optional Downloads”. The encoder file allows you to export MP3 files.

4. Okay. You have your MP3 file, Audacity and the LAME MP3 Encoder file now ready to go. So, let’s …

5. Open the Audacity program. In the menu bar, under File, choose Open. Browse your hard drive and find the MP3 file. Once you find the file, choose it and click the Open button. It may take a short while for the file to export and open in the Audacity program.

6. Do you have the file open now? Excellent. Now, under Edit (left upper corner), choose Select … > All. Your action now selects the entire MP3 file.

7. Under EFFECT (in the same menu bar as before) … choose “Change Tempo…” (about 5th one down the column). A new window opens. You can see a slider bar with a window showing 0.0 percentage change. That’s the spot to alter the MP3’s tempo without changing the pitch.

8. Now, enter the percentage change you want and preview the playback. Usually, somewhere between 10 – 50% change does the trick. Start at 10% and go up. Preview the playback with every % change you make.

9. When you are happy with the playback speed, click OK. The rewriting process takes a few moments. Once it’s finished, you’ll see the original MP3 file duration display shorter by the % change you’ve chosen.

10. Now, click somewhere in the big gray rectangle below the new waveform of the MP3 file. Make sure this deselects any portions of the waveform.

11. Got it? Good. Now, go to File (left upper corner menu bar again) and choose “Export As MP3”. A new window opens and gives you the choices to name your new file and store it. Go ahead and do that. You can add the word “FAST” at the end of the file name to recognize it from the original file later.

12. Almost done. Close Audacity now. If you want to keep the original file intact “as it were”, click on “No” and Audacity closes.

13. Now, all you have to do is to download the “faster” MP3 file to your MP3 player and boogie down the road, so to speak. If you need help with transferring downloadable audio books, MP3 books, MP3 music or any MP3 voice recordings to your MP3 player, you’ll find http://www.mybigaudio.com/help.html video section useful .

You are done. Congratulations! Downloadable audio books on-the-go can go even faster. See, it’s easy to speed up MP3 books, teleconferences, or any other recorded voice in MP3 format.

Be our guest and download free MP3 Books in many attractive and popular categories. Lu Smith invites you to check out samples of Downloadable Audio Books and several monthly specials right now.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lou_Smith



Download Free Audio Books

By Alberto Abudara


There is a great number of websites offering to download free audio books, e-books about different topics, also free software. Somebody may wonder why are they offering that, is there any hidden reason to do it or they are simply generous and like to give away free stuff.

At first, one would think they are losing money, why giving away for example a free audio book when they can charge for it. However, lots of people query the search engines with the word free, trying to find free stuff, maybe because they don't want to spend money on the web, maybe in certain countries they are afraid to use their credit card online. Offering free content, is a great way to receive a great number of visitors in your web site. But, if they are looking for free things, you may think its useless to have them as a visitor. That's not right ! Maybe they won't buy now, but if they sign-up to the site or a newsletter in the site, the owner of the website will have the possibility to sell him things in the future, perhaps offering some great opportunities such as a discounted items only for people in that list.

On the other hand, visitors to the site may click in some of the ads or banners the website has, perhaps also offering to download free audio books, and that would also make the website owner earn money.

From the customers point of view, what should be done ? Maybe say: "They are cheating me, I won't download nothing, they only want me to buy" That would be useless, it would be a better idea to visit the site that offers free audio books, and check if they like any of the free titles offered. Also if the website has ads, visit other sites which may also offer to download free audio books.

And who knows, maybe some time after, there is a great offer, and you will finish buying a very interesting audio book you hadn't thought about.

Alberto Abudara is the owner of Audio Book Fortress, http://www.audiobookfortress.com, an audio book store offering almost 30 audio books free. To find the free audio books visit http://www.audiobookfortress.com/free.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alberto_Abudara

Audio Books - Is Your Child Gaining From These Benefits?

by: Eliza Bush

Children's audio books on CD were something I'd always regarded with mild suspicion.

After all it's not really reading or is it? As a mother and English teacher, not to mention an avid reader myself, I was fully aware of the importance of reading and had always tried my best to instil in my children and students a love of reading but, I still wondered if I wasn't perhaps missing something and decided to investigate the matter further.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the experts agree - audio books in fact help improve a child's reading!

By listening to audio books children are presented with an opportunity to hear language thereby providing them with models for the correct use of grammar and also giving them the chance to hear the correct pronunciation of new or difficult words.

Another benefit of audio books is that they can play a vital role in bridging the gap in young children whose understanding and comprehension is greater than their reading skill. Often children who cannot yet read or who are just learning to read become frustrated by their lack of reading ability. In allowing them to "read" along with an audio book this frustration can be avoided as the child feels as though they're actually reading. This is an enormous benefit when encouraging a life-long love of books and reading in the very young.

A more obvious, but no less important benefit of listening to stories is that it improves a child's listening skills. More than half of our learning or accumulation of knowledge is achieved through just listening. Wow! Up until now I hadn't really thought about it like that. Through just listening to audio books on CD or cassette children's concentration is improved and they become better listeners and thereby better learners. Just take a moment and think about it. Not too long ago there were no televisions and radios were the centre of home entertainment. Growing up in South Africa (TV only became available there in the early 70's) I still remember looking forward to Sunday evenings at home listening to stories on the radio. Listening to stories is still a great way to spend quality time together as a family and it has been shown to improve a child's conversation skills and to encourage them to express themselves.

The narrators of audio books also often bring the stories to life through different voices, music and sound effects. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations and "paint" their own pictures of characters and places. The overall effect of this is one of entertainment and enjoyment thereby strengthening the link between books and pleasure. This is particularly important for parents struggling with reluctant or problem readers.

According to a Commission on Reading report, "Becoming a Nation of Readers", "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children." However, changes in society mean that more and more demands are being made on our time. Finding time to squeeze everything in is often not only a challenge but impossible. Audio books can give often exhausted parents a break from reading to their child. What better way to relax and end the day than to cuddle up together and just listen.

About The Author


Eliza Bush is an English teacher and mother of two. She is the Managing Director for Storytime Africa where you can find funny African animal stories for children on audio book and illustrated picture book. Please visit us at http://storytimeafrica.com and allow your children to benefit too.

eliza@storytimeafrica.com

Advantages of Learning Through Audio Books

by: Andrew Corner

Books on tapes, audio books, and other audio learning devices are fast gaining popularity in the education field. In using audio book learning systems for the purpose of education, parents, teachers, and educators are relieved that its benefits are numerous. The increasing success of starting and struggling readers is often credited to using audio books as part of their learning process. Aside from this, there are other advantages in using audio materials not only in schools, but also in homes and other places.

In education, it is generally cheaper to provide a single set of books on tape, audio books, and other audio learning materials for the class to share. Money is saved because individual books are not needed. Plus, the teacher will be able to do more with his or her time while the class listens to audio lessons. Researches also show that a large percentage- 85%- of our learning and knowledge actually comes from listening. Another plus factor for using audio books is the improvement of the students' listening and comprehension skills. They are compelled to listen attentively since they cannot follow what is being played on tape with a book. In addition, studies have proved that reading beginners see printed words as disconnected symbols. Through the aid of audio learning, the rhythm of the speech and its patterns are made distinct, thereby making the printed material flowing and easily absorbed. What's more, early readers can learn the pronunciation of words through listening to books on tapes. This minimizes the risk of losing interest in reading. Difficulty in pronouncing words and the pressure of pronouncing words correctly are two of the most common reason why people lose interest in reading. Also, even if the reader does not understand the definite meaning of words or of what they're hearing, they will have an idea about its meaning depending on how it is said on tape.

The importance of books on tape, audio books, and audio learning devices are not confined to the classroom. Homeschoolers often use audio books during their classes at home. Advantages for using audio books include the development of interest for literature. It is common knowledge that children loved to be read to. Audio books and learning are a great way to expose them to literatures other than the traditional fairy tales. The danger of them being bored is very minimal as professional actors usually narrates and portrays the characters. Interesting sound effects are also added for additional enjoyment. Plus, children at an early age will learn to associate literature with a fun activity. For adults, books on tape, audio books, and audio learning devices are great ways to learn a foreign language. It is proven that learning a new language is easier if you hear it often. Also, the need to enroll in a language course is not necessary unless it is a certification that you want.

Reasons for using books on tapes, audio books, and audio learning devices are many; but still, education is the greatest. These reasons should and hopefully will provide readers with ideas on how important, and fun, audio learning is when used for education. A hoped-for and expected effect of books on tape and audio books are that children and students read at home with willingness and interest.

About The Author


Andrew Corner

To learn more about new learning systems like books and books on tapes, please visit http://www.books-on-tape.net