The advent of the audio book happened over 35 years ago in the early 1970s. Initially the most common place where you found audio books was at the public library. Usually you could listen to the book only at the library where they had the necessary tape playing equipment. At the beginning these recordings were often of only average quality but within a few years, due to the growing popularity, many publishers began to produce much higher quality audio books.
As most public and municipal libraries had only modest resources to buy these audio books their catalog of available titles were initially quite small. To satisfy the publics growing appetite for audio books, a large number of rental groups began to spring up everywhere offering a much wider range of titles.
Audio book rentals are akin to audio book clubs, but they are able to offer customers unlimited access to literally thousands of different audio books. Customers are offered the option of having their audio book rental on either a CD or tape. They can then select from a range of services where the hire rates can vary depending on the duration of the rental or by way the rented audio books are returned, for...