Amazon.com Acquires BrillianceAudio
by Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 05/24/2007
Amazon.com yesterday announced the acquisition of audiobook house, BrillianceAudio, for an undisclosed sum. Purchase of the Grand Haven, MI, company reportedly is part of Amazon's plan to bolster its audiobook sales and to up the number of titles available. Amazon VP Greg Greeley told Publishers Weekly that he hopes the buyout will spur publishers that haven't yet made an investment in audio to consider Amazon "a new partner" and take the audiobook plunge; he said he expects a "sizable" boost in audiobook production as more publishers come into the fold. Amazon currently offers more than 100,000 audio book titles for sale, 1000 of which are produced by Brilliance.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that "the Brilliance fiction collection is expected to grow, possibly expanding to business and children's books." The publication also quotes Grand Rapids PL reference librarian Marla Ehlers as saying that in the past five years, the library boosted its audiobook acquisition by 18 percent, andthe main library circulates 59,000 spoken books every year. "It's one way to squeeze in 'reading' without sitting down and reading a book," Ehlers said.
Amazon also revealed that CD and MP3 discs will now be included in its CustomFlix disc on demand service.
