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Booktrack Adds Music and Sound Effects To Ebooks

Zothecula writes "There's no doubt that a soundtrack can significantly enhance the immersiveness and emotional impact of films and TV programs. But can some audio accompaniment do the same thing for books? New York City-based startup Booktrack thinks so and has released an iOS app — with an Android app also on the way — that adds soundtracks to eBooks. As the user reads they can listen to ambient background noise relevant to the book's current setting, specific sound effects synchronized to the text as it is read, and music. But does a soundtrack 'boost the reader's imagination and engagement' as the company states, or does it just create another distraction to be overcome when delving into a book on the bus on the way home?"

4 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Oh great... by koan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hey what next moving pictures? I think they call that TV.

    Of all the things I will miss if I live long enough a good printed paperback is very close to the top, maybe even higher up than cheese...

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  2. Good work there guys.... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, after I'm finished inserting irksome background noise to compensate for any deficiencies an author may have had in terms of showing rather than telling, or deficiencies I may have in reading ability, can I have a smartphone app that detects when I'm in a restaurant and automatically inserts the sound of somebody with an annoying nasal voice having an obnoxious conversation? How about some random honking every time my phone detects that it is going more than 30mph?

    Bloody hell, people, if there is one thing that modernity needs like a hole in the head, it is more fucking background noise...

  3. Spock softly moaned as kirk ran his fingers thru by sg_oneill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fan slash fiction is about to get even creepier folks. Much much creepier.

    --
    Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  4. Balderdash by curmudgeon99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since these guys even thought of this idea, they are idiots. First of all, the only person who has the right to choose a soundtrack is the original author.
    Second, the whole idea of books is a completely immersive experience. This merely shows me these morons are not readers and don't know that the addition of a soundtrack adds nothing to the experience. Another stupid waste of time app.