Good News: Blackstone Ends its Library Embargo

Blackstone Audio, which had been holding certain parts of its catalog from libraries for 90 days after date of publication, has announced that it will stop this practice:

Chief Sales Officer Anne Fonteneau announced the following this week:

In a continued effort to increase accessibility of audiobooks, Blackstone Publishing will release all new titles to all retail and library markets simultaneously, in both digital and physical formats, starting on July 1, 2022. Pre-order links on all sites will show up simultaneously wherever books are sold. At launch, Blackstone will release Retail CD, Library CD, MP3-CD and retail and library editions. Digital editions will be available from our digital partners on their first available release date. The Blackstone catalog is available under the perpetual one book/one user model, as well as pay-per-use, multi-use and other models.

Since the titles that Blackstone held back were joint with Audible, and since Audible will now release titles to libraries through the DPLA Palace Exchange, this move was perhaps not a big surprise. Why hold back what someone else is licensing? Still, there is much to be thankful for.

Available on first release date? Check.

Multiple models? Excellent!

RF suspects that state-level ebook advocacy has played a part in various publishers coming to the table with libraries—yet another good reason for that advocacy.

Thank you, Blackstone, for this much.