Booktrack Raises $3 Million in Funding Round
eBook 
startups are giving up on enhanced ebooks left and right as they find that there’s simply not enough of a market. That bad luck doesn’t seem to be discouraging Booktrack, which announced on Wednesday that they had raised $3 million in Series A funding.
Booktrack plans to use the funds to expand their new education-focused version of its ebook sound track platform, Booktrack Classroom.
Booktrack launched 4 years ago with a simple idea: adding sound tracks to ebooks. While this idea may not appeal to everyone, Booktrack has seen some success. Their most recent expansion, Booktrack Studio, enables the average author to add sound tracks to ebooks and it is seeing some success. Booktrack says that in the five months since the launch, it has drawn 300,000 users to its site and mobile apps, with more than 3,600 Booktracks created in 30 different languages.
Booktrack is expecting similar success in its new venture. Booktrack Classroom enables students to read, create, and share audio-enhanced ebooks for free. According to Booktrack, it supposedly capable of dramatically improving student reading and writing abilities, They cite 2 small studies which show that students with Booktrack ebooks spent more time reading and showed greater comprehension compared to students who read regular ebooks.
I remain unconvinced that sound tracks in ebooks will prove useful or popular, but you don’t have to take my word for it. You can try the ebooks yourself. Booktrack has free apps in iTunes and Google Play, and you can also read and listen to the ebooks on the Booktrack website.
Have you tried Booktrack? What did you think?
Comments
Jim Musgrave July 10, 2014 um 12:06 pm
I am a bit biased in favor of enhanced media in the "sacred land of the written word." I’m also an "old guy" (68, but who’s counting?), and I’ve seen many such starts and stops on the road to enhanced media. I believe the enhancements of audio work according to how well the author of media engineer places them in the work. The bottom line is: if the original written work is enhanced by the music, ambiance, and effects, then it has succeeded. One must keep an "open mind," however, as many traditionalist immediately nay-say the experience simply because it’s different than what they usually do. I have won Booktrack’s contests in poetry and the short story, and I’ve entered their latest fanfic contest based on Hugh C. Howey’s novel, Half Way Home. I totally believe enhancements are the wave of the future, if done correctly, and I have banked on it. I have a business that does just that!
Booktrack Raises Another $5 Million, Still Can't Explain Why Consumers Would Want a Sound Track in an eBook | The Digital Reader July 21, 2015 um 12:50 pm
[…] by investments from COENT Venture Partners and Sparkbox Ventures. Counting the $3 million raised last April and in earlier rounds, that brings Booktrack's total capital raise to $10 […]