While sound creations are reinvented according to technological developments and the development of streaming platforms, what could be the future of music books and CD books? This is the question that several book stakeholders tried to answer, Thursday, November 28, during a round table dedicated to the issue at the Montreuil Salon.
“With the transformation of sound proposals, the use of QR codes, artificial intelligence, story boxes, has the end of the good old record book sounded? “, launched Dominique Moutel, member of the Ram Dam network which brings together actors in musical creation for young audiences. A legitimate concern: supplanted by new technologies, CD players have, for example, completely disappeared from supermarkets.
« Today, sales of CD books in bookstores are in decline » (Mélanie Perry, Didier Jeunesse)
“The market has evolved a lot. Today, sales of CD books in bookstores are in decline »confirmed Melanie Perry, director of Didier Jeunesse. Despite this rather pessimistic observation, the editor nevertheless nuanced it, explaining that the heritage heritage of the house, driven by Michèle Moreau in the 1980s, is “always listened to on music platforms”. A phenomenon which could well increase with the arrival of Spotify on the French audiobook market, which until then represented only 2% of the publishing sector.
If Didier Jeunesse editions adapt to contemporary practices, they nevertheless continue to distinguish themselves with four new CD-books per year, integrated into the emblematic collection of the catalog. Entitled “The most beautiful nursery rhymes in the world”, this implies that a “collector” can go to remote regions of the planet to discover dialects that are not very widespread and practiced.
A total immersive experience
“There are still artists who want to publish musical books,” also defended the co-writer Vincent Blavier. Producer of the musical title Aldebert’s childishness (Gallimard Jeunesse, 2014), the latter notably noted that “some parents complain about no longer having a CD, since this inevitably involves being connected”. Also author of the musical tale Smartville published by Glénat, the artist continues, moreover, to want “give people a truly immersive show”, that only quality musical production can, according to him, still offer.
“For us, audio is essential. After all, the tale is first and foremost oral,” also supported Christine Lights, founder of the independent editions Le jardin des mots. If the house has not given up on the book object either and remains withdrawn from musical platforms, it has nevertheless integrated current uses. Thus, eleven titles from its flagship collection “Les Savoureux” are stamped with a QR code directing the reader to the audio version of the title, available on the house’s website.
“The QR code is starting to gain ground”
Today, is the economic model of CD-books, which are more expensive to manufacture, still viable? And does it continue to captivate the public? “There are still some book-CD loans in libraries, but it’s true that these are no longer really used in cars, as they were before, during long vacation tripsindicated Anne-Valérie Malavieille from the Parisian media library Marguerite Yourcenar. The QR code is starting to seriously gain ground and it is an option that allows us to bring parents who no longer have a CD player at home to this format. »
Concerning the Didier Jeunesse editions, Adelaide Chataignier, music project manager, admitted that the house had engaged in a process of transferring rights to a variety of storytellers, to compensate for the lack of popularity of the genre. However, all of the professionals interviewed refuse to believe that the CD book could be abandoned altogether, and all remain generally optimistic about its future. “Digital reading is extremely demanding in terms of data archivingindicated Mélanie Perry, Web hosting is expensive and energy-intensive, so we cannot rule out a potential return to physical media.”
