Sounds from the North

爱书人喜欢从当地的独立书店或商业街书店购买数字有声书。考虑到有声书市场的快速增长，独立书店也会很高兴满足这种需求。过去，独立书店出售有声书的磁带和cd，但现在越来越多的有声书以数字MP3下载或流媒体的形式出售。由Audible、亚马逊和Spotify运营的占主导地位的在线有声书平台是专有的围墙花园。因此，目前还没有一个平台允许英国的书店出售非实体格式的有声书。纽卡斯尔扩增阅读技术（ART）有限公司的“来自北方的声音”项目为独立书店向客户销售有声书创造了一种原创和创新的方法。参与的书店可以按照建议零售价（RRP）销售精装书。精装本的购买价格通常在20英镑到40英镑之间，其中包括12个月免费使用相应的有声书。在选定的情况下，这些“独立书店独家”可能还包括独立书店独家定制的纸尾和喷边。精装书+有声书是由增强阅读技术（ART）有限公司在退房时动态创建的。这一提议大致参照了黑胶唱片的销售模式。黑胶唱片是音乐爱好者和发烧友的优质产品，与MP3下载捆绑在一起以高价出售。这个项目的创新之处在于，它不仅提供了有声书流媒体的云平台，而且还提供了一个销售点平台，可以动态实时地创建有声书捆绑包。这种方法避免了通过现有手段创造这种捆绑产品的生产和供应链障碍，因为纸质书的生产和发行与有声书的生产和发行是如此不同。这项服务将有助于扩大消费者接触有声书的渠道，也是出版商创造“独立独家”的另一种方式，为充满活力和多样化的图书零售市场提供支持。

Bibliophiles would love to buy digital audiobooks from their local independent or high street bookshop. Independent bookshops in turn would be delighted to meet this demand given the rapid growth in the audiobook market.Independent bookshops used to sell audiobooks on tapes and CDs, but audiobooks are now increasingly sold as digital MP3 downloads or streamed. The dominant online audiobooks platforms as operated by Audible, Amazon, and Spotify are proprietary walled gardens. Thus, there is currently no platform that allows bookshops in the UK to sell audiobooks in non-physical format.The project 'Sounds from the North' by Augmented Reading Technologies (ART) Ltd in Newcastle creates an original and innovative approach for independent bookshops to sell audiobooks to their customers.Participating bookshops can sell hardbacks at the recommended retail price (RRP). The purchase price for the hardback -- typically between £20 and £40 - will include free access to the corresponding audiobook for twelve months. In selected cases these "indie exclusives" may also include custom end papers and sprayed edges exclusive to indie bookshops.The bundle of hardback + audiobook is dynamically created by Augmented Reading Technologies (ART) Ltd at check-out. The proposition is loosely modelled on how vinyl records, a premium product for music lovers and aficionados, are sold bundled with MP3 downloads at a premium price.What makes the project innovative is not only the cloud platform for audiobooks to be streamed and accessed entirely in the browser on any connected device through a one-click approach, but the point-of sale platform that allows for the audiobook bundle to be created dynamically and in real-time. This approach avoids the production and supply-chain hurdles for creating such a bundle by existing means because print production and distribution is so different from audiobook production and distribution.The service will help broaden consumer access to audiobooks and is an alternative means for publishers to create "indie exclusives" that support a vibrant and diverse retail market place for books.