Final Harry Potter audiobook out this summer

The US audiobook of the seventh and final Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released on July 21, the same time as the bound text, with the Grammy Award-winning Jim Dale again handling all the voices.

The British editions have been narrated by actor Stephen Fry.

The Listening Library, the children’s imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group, announced today the audio for the 784-page book will run 21 hours, and retail for £40.

No first printing was announced, but Amanda D’Acierno, director of marketing and publicity for Random House Audio, said the number would “definitely” be higher than the 635,000 announced for Potter 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

JK Rowling’s fantasy series has sold more than 4 million audio copies in North America alone, and Dale has become a celebrity, winning a Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. The audio for Half-Blood Prince sold more than 165,000 copies the first weekend, more than most audiobooks sell all year.

Random House confirmed that the audio for Deathly Hallows will be available in cassette and CD, but did not announce a downloadable version. Only in 2005 did Rowling, known for her resistance to digital technology, allow the audiobooks to be downloaded, releasing them exclusively through Apple Inc’s iTunes.

“We have digital rights for the new book, but there are so many scenarios in the digital world that we’re not ready to discuss the downloadable version at this point,” D’Acierno said.

None of the Potter stories are available as ebooks, a status not expected to change with Deathly Hallows.