Ann Arbor, Mich. - Media retail chain Borders on Tuesday announced the launch of Borders Audiobook Downloads on Borders.com with an initial slate of 15,000 titles. Powered by audiobook distributor OverDrive, the site at launch offers around one-third of its catalog in the unprotected MP3 format

New York - Digital music service eMusic said on Thursday that it has added nine new publishers to its MP3 audiobook store, which it says is now selling nearly 13,000 titles per month. Joining the store are Simon & Schuster Audio, BBC Audiobooks UK, Reagent Press, Hay House, L.A. Theatre Works, Tantor Media, Phoenix Books, Listen and Live, Brainsync and Audio Evolution. "We look forward to testing the DRM-free waters with eMusic, as we believe their customers will be strong audiobook consumers," said Chris Lynch EVP and publisher for Simon & Schuster Audio.

Cleveland, Ohio - OverDrive, a distributor of digital books to online retailers, libraries and schools, announced on Tuesday that it has added DRM-free audiobook titles in the MP3 format to its offering. The titles, from publishers including Random House Audio, Blackstone Audiobooks, Hachette Book Group and Books in Motion, will initially be made available through Borders.com's audiobook store, with a limited selection also to be offered through OverDrive's library partners.

New York - Publisher Random House, a unit of Germany's Bertelsmann, has decided to forego digital rights management on its audiobooks and will begin selling them in the unprotected MP3 format, The Wall Street Journal reported. Authors who do not wish to participate may still have their audiobooks sold wrapped in DRM. Random House recently partnered with digital music store eMusic to test sales of DRM-free audiobooks, and found that none of its titles were pirated on file-sharing networks.

New York - Digital music service eMusic announced on Wednesday that it now counts over 350,000 paid subscribers to its service, which offers over 3 million tracks from 25,000 labels. The subscriber figures include the both the company's Web-based service, and new mobile download service offered through AT&T. Since establishing its subscription model in 2003, New York-based eMusic said it has sold over 165 million tracks, as well as over 25,000 digital audiobooks in the last 50 days.

New York - Publisher Penguin's audiobooks unit has removed its titles from the website of digital audio retailer eMusic, over fears of digital piracy on a new eMusic service that sells audiobooks in the unprotected MP3 format, The New York Times reported.

New York - A group of 15 mystery novel writers have teamed to produce an audiobook-only novel, "The Chopin Manuscript," which is available for purchase through Audible.com and the iTunes Store, Reuters reported. The novel was conceived by author Jeffrey Deaver ("The Twelfth Card") in December 2006, includes contributions from other authors including Lee Child ("Bad Luck and Trouble") and David Hewson ("A Season for the Dead"), and is narrated by actor Alfred Molina.

New York - Digital music retailer eMusic, the second-largest seller behind Apple's iTunes, announced on Monday that it has added over 1,000 downloadable audiobook titles in MP3 format to its catalog. Audiobooks from publishers including Blackstone Audio, Hachette, Naxos Audiobooks, Penguin and Random House will be available by subscription, for $9.99 per month for one book or $19.99 for two books. While the audiobook files will be delivered as MP3s, they will include watermarks for tracking where they end up. Some publishers are viewing the addition of their titles as a test. "We're very interested in testing this, but we didn't think it was appropriate to put all of our titles in a test program," Random House Audio publiser Madeline McIntosh told The New York Times. "If we see that piracy of our products is increasing, we would stop."

Cedar Knolls, N.J. - MediaBay, a provider of spoken word audio content that has been seeking a buyer since early last year, announced that it is ceasing operations.

Seattle - Online retailer Amazon.com announced on Wednesday its acquisition of Brilliance Audio, an independent publisher of audiobooks. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.