Blackstone Audio

-


According to the Audio Publishers Association, the audio book industry is growing at a rapid rate. The number of titles being produced doubled between 2012 and 2013. Retail sales during 2013 were estimated at $1.3 billion. One of the companies responsible for this huge increase is Blackstone Audio http://www.blackstoneaudio.com

Blackstone Audio offers more than 10,000 audio book titles, making it one of the nation's largest independent publishers in the industry. In addition to recording and releasing their own audio books, Blackstone also works on productions from Hachette, HarperCollins and Christian Audio.

Besides producing physical audio book products, Blackstone also offers a digital download service called Downpour.com http://www.downpour.com/
My personal belief is that digital downloads are the wave of the future, and that physical products will eventually become antiquated.


My association with Blackstone Audio began with my appearance as a guest on a podcast called “Get Behind Me, Now Stay There” www.justimagineitink.com which is recorded at the Blackstone Audio studios in Ashland, Oregon. Hosts of the show are Edward C. Stanton, President of Just Imagine It Ink, KSKQ 89.5FM radio personalities Maya Seligman and Holly Lorien Adams, New York correspondent and voice over artist Chrissy McIntyre, Blackstone Audio employees Cyrus Emerson (producer), and Jerry Renfrow (recording engineer). In addition to talking with people in the audio book industry, the show also features interviews with musicians, actors and artists and even “just the guy down the street.”


The moderators of “Get Behind Me, Now Stay There” have been gracious enough to invite me back on the show next month to discuss the upcoming Audies Competition. In the world of audio books, the top honors are called Audies. Blackstone Audio has four original titles which are up for Audies this year, and have worked on numerous projects for other companies which are finalists as well http://audiopub.org/Audies15/2015_Audie_Awards_Release.pdf

I predict the audio book industry will continue its upward spiral. Although my company, Straight to Audio Productions, is a just small speck in the stream of the audio book business, I benefit from the success of Blackstone Audio. Through their efforts to promote the art of the spoken word, the amount of people listening to audio books has increased for everyone. Here's wishing Blackstone Audio and all the other finalists the best of luck at this year's Audies Competition!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating an Impressive Web Presence

-
Image
The sponsors of Voice Acting For Dummies are offering this guest blog post that I thought would be helpful to actors and writers. Enjoy!  An effective Internet marketing strategy is one of the keys to a successful voice acting business. Your business needs a multi-pronged approach to ensure positive results. One of the first things any voice actor needs to do before jumping in full force to self-market is to build a website. This website can be a traditional one or it may be having a profile on a voice-over marketplace. Most people have both. In the following sections, we focus on how you can build your web presence with a personal website that you can be proud of, how you can utilize social media, how you can maximize how people can locate your presence, and how you can advertise online. (We discuss a marketplace site in the “Utilizing a Voice Acting Marketplace Website” section in this chapter.) Building a personal website When you modestly invest...
Read more

The First Review of Yikes! Another Quirky Audio Book

-
AudiobookFans.com Gives Yikes! 4.5 Stars      Two bloggers from Indiana are the fist to review Yikes! Another Quirky Audio Book. Maggie and John, siblings who administer the AudiobookFans.com website, have reviewed more than 200 audiobooks. Although Maggie and John are related, their preferences differ when it comes to genre. This is good news for audio book publishers who are looking to get their work reviewed because if one of them isn't interested, chances are the other one is!      John began his journey into the world of audio books to keep him company during his business travels. Maggie caught the bug in the gym when she made the happy discovery that a good story can do a lot to perk up a ho-hum workout.      Although the emphasis on the AudiobookFans website is on audio books, Maggie says the best thing about the blog is corresponding with readers.      “ Talking to our readers and making ne...
Read more

What is Search Engine Optimization?

-
Image
I have the good fortune of belonging to an informal business support group. We meet for breakfast to talk about how we are using social media to publicize our companies. For the gathering this month, I suggested we learn about Search Engine Optimization – a concept generating a lot of buzz these days. I don't know much about Search Engine Optimization, but marketing gurus insist it is the pathway to a successful website. Anything related to the internet boggles my mind, so I thought Search Engine Optimization for Dummies seemed like a good place to start http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/search-engine-optimization-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html Generally speaking, SEO refers to the visibility each website has for search engines such as Google. The name of the game is to get the highest ranking possible on a given search engine to increase the chance of people clicking on your website. Using effective keywords and including lots of links in your ...
Read more