[js1138]

I'm not currently into audiobooks, but they seem to be a growth industry.

I'm thinking that people with great reading voices will eventually copyright their voice signatures for computerized readers. Current text to voice technology is pretty primitive, but I can foresee a solution.

A talented actor reads the text, and his/her inflections are digitally encoded. Then the original reader's voice is replaced with a licensed voiceover emulating the actor of your choice. Actors could earn royalties from their voices long after they are retired or dead.

TV commercials are already running with clips from old movies digitally embedded into new footage.

[RightWingAtheist]

The popularity of audiobooks will grow with an aging population of bibliopaths who will no longer be able to read text visually, and will have to rely on them for their literary fix.