Typology of Audio book as sound art in the Age of Newmedia

Audio book has emerged as a type of hybrid (link) between print and audio media which has evolved with the growth of analouge and digital technologies and has experienced a variety of media carriers such as cassette, radio, CD, podcast, social media and application. These evolotions have prompted various theoretical and scientific issues for this type of hybrid, including: the relation of this kind of audio with the written version of the book, the independence of the audiobook, its typology and artistic dimensions in relation to audio- artistic formats.This paper, based on Ludwig's theory of “audiovisual literature”, deals with typology of audiobooks and explaining its media and artistic dimentions. Ludwig states that when a printed copy is produced in the form of an audio book, it transforms from a written textual identity to a phonetic-auditory one which is called literary-audio type. The research has been done by documentary and library method and qualitative content analysis. The statistical population of the study consisted of four platforms: Audible, Soundcloud, Podomatic and Iran-Seda. The sample size is purposefully chosen.The results divide audiobook types based on format of production, audio literature, media carrier and new types. The audiobook is a new version of oral literature and historically, it is the continuation of oral literature, it finds an artistic form, it associates with the auditory arts by using artistic elements and signs, and on this basis can be considered as an independent type of art.