LibriVox Forum

This is just a question out of Curiosity.

As an Individual of this era,I was made to DownLoad AudioBooks from Librivox due to my inability to Experience AudioBooks from Expensive Media like Audible and StoryTel.

But,what were the Odds then(In 2005),when Librivox was Found?
What Forces then made People Opt for Librivox?
Were there any Expensive AudioBook Media like Audible and StoryTel?Or,was there any Other Factor?

BTW,as SomeOne New to Librivox,I can say that You people do an Amazing job.The only thing I find problematic about Your Domain is the 64kbps BitRate of Your Audio Files.

May You Folks Keep Growing and Prospering.

BTW,as SomeOne New to Librivox,I can say that You people do an Amazing job.The only thing I find problematic about Your Domain is the 64kbps BitRate of Your Audio Files.

Our catalog pages only have a Zip file of the 64kbps files, but you can access the 128kb ones.

Go to the Archive link for the books you're listening to. (The link is in the right column, near the bottom of the column.) From there you can download a zip file of 128kbps MP3s.

AdhiraamBose wrote: ↑March 9th, 2021, 7:33 am This is just a question out of Curiosity.

As an Individual of this era,I was made to DownLoad AudioBooks from Librivox due to my inability to Experience AudioBooks from Expensive Media like Audible and StoryTel.

But,what were the Odds then(In 2005),when Librivox was Found?
What Forces then made People Opt for Librivox?
Were there any Expensive AudioBook Media like Audible and StoryTel?Or,was there any Other Factor?

Before 2005, when I wanted to listen to an audiobook, it was usually too expensive to consider buying from a bookstore. It cost more than the hardcover edition, and came as a box full of cassette tapes. Sets of CDs were even more expensive when they became available. Library copies of the cassette tapes and CDs were usually damaged. Some audiobooks were available in other formats for other machines, but I never used them. I got most of my music on cassettes and then CDs from subscription services. I don't recall any audiobooks by subscription then.

As 2005 came nearer, I still didn't download a book from the internet because my internet connection was too unreliable and my computer hard drive was too small. Eventually I had a tiny portable device that held carefully-selected songs, and the capacity increased over the years until it was large enough to hold one book.

In 2005 my cell phone was only for emergency use for brief calls to and from close friends and family members. I was still using a cassette tape recorder to record books for loved ones.

Some time around 2015 I shopped for a new cassette recorder and/or microphone and discovered mics sold for use with a computer. That's when I discovered LibriVox and its forums loaded with helpful suggestions.

I hope this helps you get a feel for how audiobook availability has changed. I hope more people will share their memories of what the audiobook market was like in 2005.

You might find this PBS piece from 2017 interesting: A short history of the audiobook, 20 years after the first portable digital audio device. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/a-short-history-of-the-audiobook-20-years-after-the-first-portable-digital-audio-device

I have the feeling that, years ago, someone suggested that we put together an actual history of the development of LibriVox, but I've not been able to find the thread.

Peter

There's a brief history of the beginnings of Librivox in the wiki page https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=LibriVox

k5hsj wrote: ↑March 14th, 2021, 7:44 pm You might find this PBS piece from 2017 interesting: A short history of the audiobook, 20 years after the first portable digital audio device. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/a-short-history-of-the-audiobook-20-years-after-the-first-portable-digital-audio-device

Wow! "Audiobooks first emerged in 1932 with... recordings of books on vinyl records. Each side held about 15 minutes of speech." No wonder my first experiences with audiobooks were abridged!

Hi!

Just to mention that the brief history of LibriVox at the wiki stops at 2010, now 11 years ago. I think since then quite a number of milestones have been reached. Perhaps it would be a good idea to update it regarding the following years.

I do not have access to the wiki, I am just a cover maker.

Cheers!

Basquetteur

Rapunzelina wrote: ↑March 15th, 2021, 2:12 am There's a brief history of the beginnings of Librivox in the wiki page https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=LibriVox

If you want to be able to edit the wiki you can ask for access - it tells you how in the wiki
Anne

Anne , thank you very much for your comment and your suggestion.
I think I am going for the time being just propose here in this thread some additional sentences to complete the history of librivox until 2021. I think there are other people with much better knowledge and experience in Librivox than me. Just allow some time for me to draft something for it. Others might be able to do it from memory, while I will have to do some search, and I may lack perspective.

I will also ask for access to the wiki.

Cheers

Basquetteur

Hi!,

As promised, here are possible additional entries to the librivox history wiki, to update it since 2010:

October 26, 2011 - LibriVox releases its 5000th audiobook: Roderick Hudson (https://librivox.org/roderick-hudson-by-henry-james/) by Henry James.
August 6, 2016 Librivox reaches 10,000 audiobooks at its 11th anniversary, post in LibriVox blog: https://librivox.org/category/monthly-picks/page/15/
August 9, 2018 LibriVox reaches 12,000 audiobooks at its 13th anniversary, post in LibriVox blog: https://librivox.org/category/monthly-picks/page/9/
August 9, 2019 LibriVox reaches 13,000 audiobooks at its 14th anniversary, post in LibriVox blog: https://librivox.org/category/monthly-picks/page/6/
August 9, 2020 LibriVox turns 15 and reaches 14,200 audiobooks, post in LibriVox blog: https://librivox.org/category/monthly-picks/page/3/
June, 3, 2020, LibriVox reaches 14,000 audiobook, post in LibriVox blog: https://librivox.org/2020/06/03/librivox-celebrates-14000-audiobooks/
February, 14, 2021, LibriVox reaches 15,000 audiobooks, post in LibriVox blog: https://librivox.org/2021/02/14/librivox-celebrates-15000-audiobooks/
February, 14, 2021, LibriVox has audiobooks in 43 languages besides English, and there were more than 10,850 readers who contributed, same entry in the blog


Some intermediate entries might be dropped. And I might look into the thread about librivox statistics (which was my initial idea, but in fact I have used the blog) to fish some more milestones

Of course comments and improvements are welcome.

I have not yet asked for acces to the wiki. I will once this is more or less correct.

Cheers!

Basquetteur

It might be worth noting the cleanup months and their statistics ... but possibly messy to find them.

Peter

Thank you Peter Why, I think that is a good idea. To add one entry with the cleaning up month with the highest number of audiobooks finished. May be it was last March 2021?

Another entry I think it should be included is the calendar year with the highest number of audiobooks produced. Wasnt'it 2020? The milestone would be December, 31 of that year.

May be a milestone about number of readers (higher than a rounded appropriate figure)?

I still have not exploited the librivox statistics thread.

Cheers!

Basquetteur

Hi!

I think the entry regarding the month of March 2021 could be something like:
March, 31, 2021 during this March LibriVox released 186 audiobooks, the highest number in a single month. This is one of the yearly months dedicated to the "clean up" or concentrating efforts to finish books that were lagging behind and unfinished, see thread: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=85943

Please note that English is not my mother tongue.

Cheers

Basquetteur

That sounds fine, but I'd tend to expand "yearly months", so you have something like "Approximately once a year, one month is dedicated to ...."

Peter

Cleanups do not happen every year.

I'd suggest just saying it happened during one of our "occasional cleanup months", or "periodical cleanup months". (Although "periodical" to me sounds more regular than the cleanup months are.)