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+--- Thread: No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... (/thread-8984.html)
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - Teskal - 2012-01-30
... modern stories in japanese?
Hi, I was on the japanese Amazon page and tried to find an audiobook of Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. But couldn't find them.
Do japanese People not like hearing audiobooks of american or european writers?
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - wccrawford - 2012-01-30
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/books/4915512509/250-1334383-5560257
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - bertoni - 2012-01-31
There are audiobooks for the first three Harry Potter books only, unless more were released very recently.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - kitakitsune - 2012-01-31
Japanese people do not like audiobooks period and there is nearly zero market for them in Japan.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - Nagareboshi - 2012-01-31
kitakitsune Wrote:Japanese people do not like audiobooks period and there is nearly zero market for them in Japan.Looking at the growing numbers of learners of the language all over the world, and taking into consideration that they would probably supplement their learning with audio-books if they were available to them, producing for that market could proof to be a gold-mine.
It is the same with e-books in pdf or other formats mainly used outside of Japan. Kindle might break into the Japanese market, but that doesn't necessarily follow, that the books will be purchasable outside Japan, where there is clearly a demand for Japanese books.
And in Japan the situation is not any better from what I have read about that topic. There are companies releasing ebooks, tied to certain readers and only with them the books can be read. I am not saying that this is something only Japanese companies do. But it would be so much easier to open up the market both ways, allowing foreign customers easy access, and gain a huge income from it.
Only targeting the domestic-market, allthough a huge one as far as Japan goes, is a bit short-sighted. But it is their choice, they must know what they are doing, and if they can indeed miss out on the chance of making more money - so be it.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - Teskal - 2012-01-31
what I hate about audiobooks is, that these are so expensive. The japanese version costs to much, shipping costs not even checked. :-(
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - thurd - 2012-01-31
bertoni Wrote:There are audiobooks for the first three Harry Potter books only, unless more were released very recently.Last time I checked there were only two, so things are slowly improving.
kitakitsune Wrote:Japanese people do not like audiobooks period and there is nearly zero market for them in Japan.I read an article that argued things were slowly changing and Japanese began to appreciate how useful audiobooks are especially when your schedule is tight. Sometimes Japan is just slow at adopting new technologies/ideas, ie. iPhone was a total flop in first generations but now everybody wants one.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - kitakitsune - 2012-01-31
Audiobooks are really a product of the American tendency to commute long distances by car. Japanese people don't really do long distance commutes by car so the audiobook never caught on.
It's really easy to read a book on a train, even when they are crowded. This is why Japanese novels are sold in such small sizes compared to the US.
What is odd is the increasing popularity of podcasts in Japan over the last 5 years or so hasn't resulted in an increase in popularity for audio books. Maybe someone who knows more than I can come in and tell us why this hasn't happened.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - vix86 - 2012-01-31
When I was in college I commuted my last 2-3 years to and from the main campus which was 45min to an hour away one way. I started listening to audiobooks during this time because it was convenient and wouldn't put me to sleep (music causes me to doze), plus I wanted to expand the books I knew. Most Japanese probably commute about this same amount of time each day in the metro areas, so I can't see why it hasn't caught on.
Honestly I would not be suprised to learn there was some move by the big publishers to restrict/stop audiobooks in Japan. The publishers were mega corps 10-20 years ago, and Japanese companies are not particularly renowned for their expanded-to-incorporate-new-business-ideas.
I've never listened to them but I know they exist. Something similar to audiobooks are radio shows (think original War of the Worlds over the radio in the 30-40's). A lot of anime/Light novels release like this. They're a lot like audiobooks I suspect.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - Jarvik7 - 2012-01-31
Quote:What is odd is the increasing popularity of podcasts in Japan over the last 5 years or so hasn't resulted in an increase in popularity for audio books. Maybe someone who knows more than I can come in and tell us why this hasn't happened.Probably something to do with how listening to an audiobook takes many times longer than reading silently to yourself. I've listened to maybe 3 audiobooks in my entire life because they try my patience.
This combines with the very low prices of paper books here killing the potential of an audiobook market (which would have to be more expensive), and the extreme conservativeness of the every content industry that resists new technology (and you thought MPAA/RIAA members were bad).
Finally, by changing it to spoken word you lose all kinds of ability for wordplay through kanji choice etc, which is rather important to Japanese.
A podcast is just a prerecorded radio show so it's not really comparable I don't think.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - buonaparte - 2012-01-31
ドラマＣＤ，朗読, ラジオドラマ、青春アドベンチャー、ＦＭシアター, オーディオブック
http://www.febe.jp/
http://www.dlmarket.jp/default.php/manufacturers_id/1757/sort/6d
http://audio.shosai.ne.jp/
http://www.kotonoha.co.jp/title/listen_index.html
http://www.nichigai.co.jp/yomikata/musashi.html
ニコニコ動画 http://www.nicovideo.jp/
ニコみみ http://www.nicomimi.net/
http://www.jpmp3.com/index.php
http://rutracker.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=525
http://www.verycd.com/
http://ska4ka.com/
http://ska4ka.com/16922-harii-pottaa-to-himitsu-no-heya-harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-book-2.html
http://ska4ka.com/15242-harii-pottaa-to-kenja-no-ishi-harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone-.html
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - psychopatate - 2013-01-18
You can find the books here :
http://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1660037
and here :
http://www.nyaa.eu/?page=torrentinfo&tid=160089&showfiles=1
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - sherlock - 2013-04-05
Jarvik7 Wrote:Probably something to do with how listening to an audiobook takes many times longer than reading silently to yourself. I've listened to maybe 3 audiobooks in my entire life because they try my patience.Thank you, you said it perfectly.
Sometimes when a book is really exciting, I tend to read very fast. An audio book sort of kills the excitement for me.
But I'm getting the Harry Potter audio books and I plan to listen to them during "downtime", maybe for passive listening.
No Audiobooks for LotR or Harry Potter or other?... - sherlock - 2013-06-26
I did a quick experiment with my Harry Potter audio book -- I listened to it at the same time as I was reading the book. It wasn't so bad; only, I have a difficulty with tategaki so I have to keep pausing the audio.