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BBC Audiobooks to go DRM-free via Random House Audio

When 9498867634_3af476ff0a[1]Amazon announced last month that they were acquiring the rights to half of bankrupt AudioGo's audiobook catalog, this blogger wondered what would happen to the rest of the titles.

Now we know. Rather than sign a deal with Audible, the BBC has agreed to let Random House Audio distribute their audiobooks.

BBC’s catalog of over 3,500 audiobook titles will be made available via Random House Audio starting on 23 December. The catalog includes audio productions of popular BBC tv shows like Doctor Who, popular fiction titles like Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and BBC radio productions including I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue and Just a Minute.

Random House Audio is getting global distribution rights with the exception of North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and Random House Audio will also be producing new titles in partnership with the BBC.

You should expect to see the titles showing up in Audible in fairly short order, but I wouldn’t buy them there. Instead I would get them direct from Random House Audio. This doesn’t get much attention in the ebook circles, but Random House Audio went DRM-free in 2008.

And to make things even better, Random House Audio also sells direct to the public. So if you cannot find the title you like on Downpour.com or Audiobooks.com (both sell DRM-free audiobooks) you can get it direct from the publisher.

This is very good news to anyone who doesn’t like DRM, wouldn’t you agree?

The Bookseller

image by pterjan

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Comments


Brian December 23, 2013 um 3:26 pm

"This is very good news to anyone who doesn’t like DRM, wouldn’t you agree?"

It’s certainly good. What we really need is for Audible, with their great selection, to make DRM an option instead of mandatory, kind of like Amazon does with eBooks. I mean DRM free would be best, but some publishers aren’t ready for that yet.


Darren Gilmore April 7, 2014 um 12:15 pm

Could you provide a link to Randomhouse Audio’s bbc catalogue, as I’ve been completely unable to find any of the titles formally distributed by Audiogo UK on the randomhouse Audio site.


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