Cassette recording of Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command done by Patrick Tull An audiobook (also referred to as a book on tape) is a recording that is primarily of the spoken word as opposed to music. While it is often based on a recording of commercially available printed material, this is not always the case; nor is this required to fit the definition of an audiobook, which is why "audiobook" is one word rather than two. It was not intended to be descriptive of the word "book" but is rather a recorded spoken program in its own right and not necessarily an audio version of a book. Spoken audio was originally primarily available in school and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops. It was not until the 1980's that there began a concerted effort to attract book retailers. As book publishers entered the field of spoken-word publishing, the transition to book retailers carrying audiobooks became commonplace on bookshelves rather than in separate displays. To put it simply, it is the context of a regular book read and recorded onto a means of media such as CD Roms or Cassettes, which can be an advantage to the blind or illiterate.