A York company inspired by the founder’s daughter has launched awards to celebrate the best in audio.
Behear Ltd, based in Stillingfleet, creates dramatised audiobooks which have been listened to by millions of people worldwide.
And now it wants to showcase the amazing work of other independed audio creators, with the first Behear Independent Audio Awards (BIAAs).
Founder Colin Sinclair explained how the business came about.
“Our daughter, Amy, had a freak accident which left her registered blind.
“I’d written a book, and she said, ‘oh, I’ll never be able to read your book’. So I said, no worries, we’ll turn it into an audio book.
“So I went about turning my book into an audio book using all of my am dram friends in and around York.
“But it was just rubbish. So I said, tell you what, let’s do it properly. So we set up a studio because we decided that other people would like that as a service as well.”
Their service provides fully dramatised audio books created with an ensemble of actors, rather than just the one voice from a standard audio book.
“The reason we did that was what Amy said – when you read a book, you create all of the voices inside your head. When you listen to a dramatised audio book it does that for you as well.
“It gives all of the people in the book their own real character, rather than what a single narrator gives you.”
Behear now creates dramatised audio books in all different genres – including science fiction, fantasy, adventure, romance, and horror, as well as children’s books.
YorkMix Radio also broadcast the company’s Cosmic Footlights drama to great acclaim – you can listen again here.
Behear has won contracts with bestselling authors, including Ella Summers, the US writer whose fantasy series sell millions around the world.
The company’s also created its own phone app to listen to the dramas. And unlike some of the big name audio streamers, Behear makes sure the author is paid properly for their work.
“We pay the author 80% of the royalties that come in,” he said. “We charge for the for the audio book itself, anything from £5.99 to £19.99, and the author gets 80% of that revenue.”
So why set up the awards? Colin said that the audio sector is a multi-billion pound, fast-growing industry – but it’s dominated by a few big players.
And independent producers find it very difficult to break into that market.
“There are lots small companies that turn out amazing work, but don’t get the recognition they should. So that was the idea behind the awards.”
The categories in the BIAAs are:
- Best Male Voiceover
- Best Female Voiceover
- Best Ensemble Cast
- Best Audio Drama
- Best Dramatised Audiobook
- Best Audio for SFX and Music
- Best Audio Company / Individual
- Best Startup Audio Company/Individual
- Best Podcast Promoting Full Audio Experiences
- Best Audio Script.
The deadline for the awards is the end of September and you can find out more and enter here.
Already the awards have had a great response. All the judges are from the audio industry.
The popularity of audio drama is only going to grow and get better, Colin says.
“There are changes coming along. More and more people are producing what’s called binaural audio, which makes it sound like it’s actually coming from inside your head.
“It plays in a 360 degree circle around your head. So you can hear it from all of the different areas that it’s coming from. It’s amazing.”
Find out more about Behear and its audio dramas here.