Recorded Books history

The company's first recording was in 1979 as The Sea-Wolf by Jack London narrated by Frank Muller, a local actor at Washington DC's Arena Stage.

By 1994, the term “audiobook” had become an industry standard.

Left: Amazon’s Audible released the first portable audio player for audio books in 1997.

Recorded Books was acquired by Haights Cross Communications in December 1999, where Recorded Books operated as a division of that company.

In 2002, Haights Cross acquired Audio Adventures, a brand established in the truck stop market to tie in with 650 rental kiosks in truck stop centers Recorded Books previously had.

As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bragged in a 2013 annual shareholder statement, “Audible makes it possible for you to read when your eyes are busy.”

In January 2014, it was announced that Haights Cross sold Recorded Books to Wasserstein & Co., an independent private equity and investment firm in New York and Los Angeles.

In January 2015, Recorded Books announced its acquisition of Tantor Media Later in 2015, Wasserstein sold Recorded Books to Shamrock Advisors, a private equity firm.

Compare that to $1.8 billion of hardcover copy books sold in 2016.

In April 2017 the company reorganized.

John le Carré called The Spy and the Traitor the “best true spy story” he had ever read, and it was shortlisted for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize as one of the best nonfiction books of 2018.

In June 2020, Recorded Books announced a deal for Blackstone Audio to exclusively manufacture, sell and distribute their physical media audiobook titles (CD & MP3) to consumers, retail, distribution and libraries in North America.