The Playway audioplayer, with one or more books preloaded, is priced to sell for no more than comparable CDs, according to the Blake Squires, founder and chief development officer for Findaway World. See an earlier TeleRead post as well as a news release. The release lists HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and other prominent publishers as suppliers of content. More than 40 titles, ranging from 1776 to Angels and Demons, will be available when the device reaches the stores in October.
Is this the ultimate DRM? Perhaps. Still, I suspect the Playaway will find some appreciative users who value the convenience of hardwarea linked to content, just so the prices are at audiobook CD level and no higher. Now, as for whether audiobook CDs are overpriced: That’s a different issue. What does it say about the price of CD content when a bright, ingenious entrepreneur can figure out a way to include an actual digital player and compete with CDs?
Update, 11:25 a.m., July 26: Blake will be among the speakers at the July 28 virtual expo on e-books, audiobooks and other topics. Meanwhile here’s further info from Blake, who, his partners, seems to have an excellent background for this kind of a project:
It’s [the player] not just for those who don’t want to worry about the tech – even those with iPODS will enjoy the immediacy, durability and portability. Certainly it is easy and great for those not wanting to deal with tech as well!
On the matter of recycling:
That is correct, people can not alter, delete or add content to the Playaway. They treat the Playaway just as they do a book, box of CDs, cassettes, etc. Interestingly, there is less plastic with Playaway than with a box of cassettes! The single AAA battery is replaceable. Consumers shelve them, share them, etc. when done. We do accept Playaways back for donation or recycling if a consumer chooses… However, we see people holding on to them or sharing them.
We will be announcing several library programs soon.
The company is privately owned and none of the existing audiobooks players have a stake in the company. The owners are the 5 partners listed on our company website at www.findawayworld.com.
Thanks again for your words and interest.
Well, good luck, Blake. You truly do have a different product, and we’ll hope that the marketplace rewards you. Of course, I personally would rather just download files and enjoy a wide variety of content, but that’s just my preference. I’m also worried about some publishers giving up on downloaded content and finding comfort in the old association of content with something physical. But that’s a book industry problem, not your fault. Most importantly of all, in a healthy marketplace, consumers will enjoy all kinds of options. So I’m glad to see the Playaway concept around, especially since it does address the sharing issue. Perhaps it will even whet people’s appetites for the usual audioplayers that work with a variety of books. If I were you, I’d offer a regular model as well.
Meanwhile I’ll continue to be curious about the e-book industry and whether someone applies the Playaway business model to the biggest best-sellers in text or libraries of them–rather than just churning out Franklin-style reference collection. E-book reading machines five years from now will be much cheaper than today. So this could well happen, maybe even long before then.
