Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

Earlier this week eMusic.com, which bills itself as the “Number one site for independent music,” announced that it would begin selling audiobooks from its website. eMusic, which operates on a subscription basis and is second only to iTunes in the digital music space, started offering the titles yesterday, and they include major publishers and titles from some of the biggest names in publishing, including Random House and Penguin.

What’s an interesting wrinkle is that the audiobooks will be issued sans digital rights management, which means the files can be listened to on multiple devices and/or computers. While iTunes offers some music free of DRM (at a premium price), its audiobooks (made available through Audible) are always swaddled with DRM. Because of this, listeners are restricted in terms of how (and when) they can listen to the files. eMusic’s move to offer their audiobooks without these restrictions, I think, marks another blow to DRM in general and points towards a future where people will truly own the digital content that they buy.

Of course, what’s also really important is the fact that eMusic is trying to get people who usually listen to music to also listen to audiobooks. And despite the outcry of purists who heap disdain upon audiobooks, saying that listening to one is a less-rewarding experience than reading the original book, this is indeed an encouraging development. Because it not only gives eMusic more content to offer to its users, but it has the potential to open up an entire world to music buyers who now may only be experiencing words in the form of song lyrics.

To celebrate the announcement, eMusic last night held a party at the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts in downtown New York. The party itself was a literary/musical combination that included performances by a couple of bands, not mention DJ J.G. Thirlwell (who was playing snippets of audiobooks over the music, which sounded very cool). In addition, Indecision author Benjamin Kunkel also put in an appearance, talking about his novel and then introducing one of the bands (who, in their sweaters, looked very much like Weezer).

And while writers have occasionally held the stage with musicians (from Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading at The Band’s final concert to The Magnetic Fields working with Lemony Snicket), now that everyone has an iPod and is downloading music (and increasingly eschewing print for electronic entertainment), the time seems right for there to be a real collaboration between these two art forms.

In fact, on the back of the party invitation, eMusic lists a few suggested pairings of books and music, offering a number of food/wine combos: Macbeth and McCartney, White Noise and The White Stripes, Leaves of Grass and Panda Bear, Metamorphosis and Max Roach, and the obligatory Moby Dick and Moby. (What, no Cement Garden and Pavement? Not to mention Steppenwolf and, well, Steppenwolf.) I mean, mixing the vocals of Destiny’s Child with the music of Nirvana is one thing, but getting Nirvana fans to read Chuck Palahniuk is something else (Bleach and Lullaby). Because, while print may be dead words themselves are still alive, and are always seeking either an eye or ear to take them in.