Audiobooks follow in the tradition of radio dramas in bringing entertainment through vocals.

Each and every decade for the past fifty years has brought with it technical changes that has affected the way in which we consume media. Film and television has experienced VHS and DVDs. Music has had CDs and cassettes. Both have now been impacted by portable devices and streaming. Also, all of these technological advancements have aided to expand the audiobook market. The leader of the hedge fund that partially owns WHSmith will be able to let you know that it has grown to become so popular that people need not consider specialised retailers, because many book retailers also sell audiobooks. Individuals enjoy having the ability to pay attention to stories while they are doing other tasks like driving, chores, and work, which audiobooks are simply ideal for. The audiobook industry now employs several thousand individuals, with the most essential roles being narrator, studio engineer, and director.

The word audiobook emerged during the 1970s, but it had been the 1930s that saw the largest revolution in the structure. During the time they were called talking books, which were envisioned as reading materials for blind people. Governments in some countries allowed producers to bypass copyright laws, which offered them usage of plenty of material, but technical limitations meant full size books could never be recorded. Alternatively poems, short tales and plays, and specific chapters of books had been the most common early audiobooks. The content continued to stay this way for several years, but the market base did see an expansion to kids as well as other adults without sight problems. The head of the hedge fund that has shares in Amazon will likely be well aware that this laid the groundwork for the future audiobook market, pushing it into the mainstream as an independent artform as opposed to entirely as a method of developing accessibility.

Oral literature is mankind's earliest type of storytelling, with an unfathomable amount of stories being passed down through the generations in most corners of the planet for several thousand years. Though certain 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. But, although they may appear like a modern phenomenon, the history of audiobooks goes back several years. Sound recordings first became possible around a hundred and fifty years back and the first tests were recitations of nursery rhymes and children's tales. Spoken word tracks continued to be made in the following decades but had been restricted to about four minutes in length.