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Format of Choice for a Legal, Free, Audio-eBook?

Posted by Cliff on from the file-type-deliberations dept.

audioAuthor asks: "Let's say I have a recorded audio-book (no music, just speech), which I want to share with the world. What format should I use to distribute it? Main requirements would be: 'Everyone is allowed to redistribute it without any restrictions" and "Usable as widely as possible'. I have been thinking of MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Speex. MP3 would be really nice, as it's usable almost everywhere, even without a computer, but it has licensing problems which I don't quite understand. Speex is free and designed for speech, but it's not widely supported at the moment. I think that Ogg Vorbis is currently better supported than Speex, and also free, but not designed for speech and would take more space to achieve same quality. So what do you say? Which one of these should I choose, or are there other formats to consider?"

5 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Why not all three? by zhiwenchong · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It isn't that hard to release an audio book in all 3 formats.

    1. Re:Why not all three? by narrowhouse · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I agree with zhiwenchong, the people who make mp3 encoders are the ones who have to pay a license currently (how LAME gets around it is little complex, but not your problem in any case), not content creators so there is no reason not to make an mp3 version. If you have software to create ogg vorbis and speex files you might as well go ahead and do it for anyone who would prefer them. The speex file may save some bandwith and the ogg vorbis file just gives you that warm free software feeling. Hope your project goes well.

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      Insert pithy comment here.
  2. What is your *real* goal? by hoggoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Simple.
    If you want to make a political/philosophical statement use Ogg Vorbis.
    If you want no-one to ever bother listening to it use Speex.
    If you want many people to listen to it use MP3.

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  3. Licensing? by general_re · · Score: 4, Informative

    As a noncommercial end-user, MP3 licensing is not a problem for you. If you were developing software to implement MP3, either encoding or decoding, or your MP3-encoded content were part of a commercial (i.e., revenue generating) enterprise, then you would need a license. Since neither of those apply, MP3 is free for you to use.

    --
    ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
    1. Re:Licensing? by general_re · · Score: 4, Informative

      More: http://www.mp3licensing.com/help/index.html

      --
      ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.