Text or Audio? Increasingly, It's Up to Us

While a lot of the attention around consumer generated content focuses on text (e.g. blogs), the spoken word is coming on stronger than ever. And it's not just podcasts and audiobooks we're talking about.

Matt Galloway, for example, has launched an audio version of Seth Godin's free ebook on blogging.

Also, I just learned about a service called Talkr that converts any RSS feed into audio. This comes on the heels of Reuters' new initiative.

I find all of these services attractive because they save me time. I get to consume the content I want “to read” while I am in my car or commuting to work by train or even running errands. Text, although “scan-able,” requires that you divert your attention from other activities to consume it.

Will the big newspapers make their text available as spoken word? I sure hope so with Apple projected to sell 43 million iPods in 2006. It seems like it could be a good revenue stream to capture dollars from advertisers who might be interested in reaching us in places they currently can't.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Audio, Audible, Radio

Comments

[Johan DeSilva]

Opera ( free to download www.opera.com ) has an option where you highlight the text and it "speaks" to you.