Less than a month after it began selling downloads of DRM-free audiobooks, MP3 online retailer eMusic has found itself unable to keep Penguin Audio’s 150 titles as part of its offerings, the NYT (FRB: 066570) reports. Penguin, one of five book publishers that initially agreed to be part of eMusic’s beta test, had a change of heart due to the lack of anti-piracy protections. The decision came from the publisher’s senior management, which has ordered the company and its various units not to participate in any digital download program that does not offer copy protection. Dick Heffernan, publisher of Penguin Audio, says the company will take a wait and see approach to how eMusic and other download stores deal with audiobooks and the DRM issue. He held out hopes for a reconnection with eMusic “sometime down the road.”

So far, another participant in eMusic’s audiobooks beta test, Bertelsmann’s Random House Audio, is satisfied that none of its eMusic titles have been pirated. The other publishers selling audiobooks through eMusic are Hachette, Blackstone Audio and Naxos Audiobooks. Subscribers to eMusic’s service are being charged $9.99 on average for an audiobook purchase. The site claims that it sells more than 500 audiobooks daily, double eMusic’s initial expectations. As for Penguin Audio, David Pakman, eMusic’s CEO, said he hopes the company will come back. In the meantime, Pakman says he has three other deals with unnamed publishers in the works, and plans to begin promoting the new service in December.

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