Podcast content has moved over to the pay-per-download world following
Apple's announcement that it
will charge $9.99 to download the 20-episode audio book of
Scott Sigler's
EarthCore from
iTunes.
The world's first "podcast only" novel, EarthCore was published in March 2005
as a free weekly serialised audio book podcast.
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Before it was completed six months later, the podcast generated 10,000
subscribers and was published as a print novel by
Dragon
Moon.
The project came to the attention of Mike Warden, owner of indie music label
Conquer The World
Records, who described EarthCore as "really cutting-edge stuff".
"With the development of iTunes as a distribution model, we saw an
opportunity to expand into the audio book market," he said.
"EarthCore is the first audio book put out by an indie label, and the first
ever podcast commercially made available for sale anywhere, let alone on iTunes.
"
Warden discovered EarthCore because the audio book features music by Detroit
band The Transfer which is signed to the Conquer The World label.
"I started listening to the book and I couldn't put my ears down, so to
speak," said Warden.
"I enjoyed the science and the suspense of the story, but Scott puts so much
passion in the way he vocalized the characters of his own book. He's like a punk
rock author; he just did everything himself."
Scott Sigler added: "Now that it's finished, there's over 15 hours of
unabridged audio book sitting there. And I stress the word 'unabridged'; it's
exactly the same book you can buy on Amazon. The exact words of the author, read
by the author."
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