A handful of people can turn a few words into a powerful piece of audio media through audiobooks.

Oral literature is humanity's oldest form of storytelling, with an unfathomable number of stories being handed down through the generations in most corners of the planet for several thousand years. While some cultures do not place as great of a focus on oral traditions like they did throughout the past, they still persist strongly in some situations, like telling tales to kids. The founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones will realise that oral storytelling has had a resurgence recently in the form of audiobooks. However, although they may seem like a contemporary trend, the history of audiobooks dates back many years. Sound recordings first became feasible around one hundred and fifty years ago and the first tests had been recitations of nursery rhymes and kid's tales. Spoken word recordings continued to be produced in the next decades but had been limited to about four minutes in total.

The term audiobook emerged during the 1970s, but it had been the 1930s that saw the largest step forward in the format. During the time these were called talking books, which were envisioned as reading materials for blind people. Governments in a few countries allowed manufacturers to bypass the laws of copyright, which gave them access to plenty of material, but technological limits meant full size books could not be recorded. Instead poems, short tales and plays, and individual chapters of books were the most frequent early audiobooks. The content continued to stay this way for many decades, nevertheless the audience base did see an expansion to children as well as other adults without sight dilemmas. The head of the hedge fund that has shares in Amazon will be well aware that this created the groundwork for the future audiobook market, pushing it in to the mainstream as an independent artform as opposed to solely as a method of making accessibility.

Every decade for the past fifty years has brought along with it technological modifications that has impacted the way in which we consume media. Television and film has had DVDs and VHS. Music has had CDs and cassettes. Both have already been influenced by portable devices and streaming. Additionally, most of these technological advancements have actually helped to boost the audiobook market. The leader of the hedge fund that partially owns WHSmith will be able to inform you that it has grown to be so prevalent that people don't need to turn to specialised retailers, because most book stores also sell audiobooks. Individuals enjoy being able to pay attention to stories whilst they are doing other tasks like driving, chores, and work, which audiobooks are simply ideal for. The audiobook industry now employs thousands of individuals, with the most important roles being narrator, studio engineer, and director.