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One day, browsing through books in Fnac, one of my favorite Cortázar stories, The South Highway, appeared in an edition as a "cinematic experience", prompting the reader to consume a story at the same time that a movie could be seen an hour and a half. In turn, companies such as Seebook are committed to tangible books and e-books are accompanied by soundtracks on Spotify (even I I did it). There is no doubt that there is a secret interest in elevating the reading experience to new, more cinematic and sensory levels, perhaps as a way to emerge in an industry that needs new and fresh ideas. So much so that there is already a company that begins to promote books with soundtracks.
What do books sound like?
In 2008, the New Zealand engineer Mark cameron I made a daily ferry ride reading a book. At the same time, he listened to playlists on his iPod that had been conscientiously created based on the words of the text he was about to read and what they transmitted to him, gradually becoming convinced of a more than effective symbiosis between literature and music yet to be exploited.
After three years of hard work to develop the necessary technology, Cameron ended up becoming the CEO of booktrack, an application launched in August 2011 with the aim of breaking the silence that books invite through a more cinematic experience. The application, available for iOS, Android and web reader, includes classics such as Jane Eyre or Romeo and Juliet with their own soundtrack suggested by the company and by the readers themselves.
Tras sign a $ 5 million contract with COENT Venture Partners and Sparkbox Ventures, Booktrack expanded its activity in 2015 in the United States and Canada, placing its free application among the 100 most downloaded on the App Store. At the same time, the company has partnered with Microsoft to promote this new type of books to more children and adolescents audiences.
In parallel, other projects such as Transpose, founded by Hannah Davis, try to find the right songs based on a system of 14 thousand words connected to a database whose songs correspond to the text we are reading.
Projects that try to revitalize a literature for which technology has provided an injection of possibilities.
Reinventing literature
Although the explosion of the boom of books with soundtrack has not yet arrived, both audiobooks and other projects that seek to reinvent literature begin to expand in an electronic book industry that, in the case of the subsidiary of Amazon already has a global fund of 12 million dollars.
At the same time, there are many questions that, in a world in which everything seems invented, refer to some books for which a new life on the Internet offers readers diverse experiences; and music is one of them.
'Cause what would it be like to hear , the songs that Murakami suggests in Tokio Blues? And what about the jazz playlist of El persecutor de Cortázar? Is reading an excuse to enjoy the silence or perhaps music and the possibility of evoking even more the feelings of a book would be the agile solution to attract new readers?
If the books had a soundtrack it is a reflection with an answer. It only remains to know if this is the next-best-thing of the world of literature or if it is confirmed that, definitely, the letters do not need auto tuning; sOnly quality.
What do you think of this possible future trend?
You have put "would have." It is "would have" :).
True thanks! 🙂