Amazon Buys Brilliance Audio

Audiobook production has been limited to best selling titles mainly because of the expense of recording, producing and bringing the books to market.

"Amazon's commitment to growing the audiobook category is a big plus for audiobook customers," added Eileen Hutton, Brilliance vice president and former president of the Audio Publishers Association (APA).

"We look forward to working with even more authors and publishing partners in the future."

"Storytelling is an art and our audiobooks strive to capture the nuance and complexity of our author’s stories and bring the characters and images to life in a way that fully engages the listener,” said Michael Snodgrass, founder and president of Brilliance Audio.

Brilliance Audio will continue to operate independently under the leadership of Michael Snodgrass and its operations will remain in Grand Haven, Michigan.

In other news Amazon recently announced that it would launch an MP3 only digital music store later this year.

Every download will be available without digital rights management (DRM), which will allow them to be played on all devices and platforms