OverDrive, Inc. is a digital distributor of

eBooks An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer ma ...

s and

streaming video Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

titles. The company provides

digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted work ...

and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, corporations and book retailers.

History

OverDrive was founded in 1986 and initially converted analog media to digital formats, such as interactive diskettes and

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...

s. In 2000, the company opened Content Reserve, an online

ebook An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

and downloadable

repository from which its distribution business developed. In 2012, the company announced a series of service upgrades, including a browser-based ereader, audiobook

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

, which enable access to audiobooks via the company’s

OverDrive Media Console OverDrive Media Console is a proprietary, freeware application developed by OverDrive, Inc. for use with its digital distribution services for libraries, schools, and retailers. The application enables users to access audiobooks, eBooks, periodica ...

app. The company also developed a Media Station, which allows users to browse their library's digital collection on touchscreen monitors and Internet workstations. An API is available which allows developers to integrate OverDrive content into various apps and platforms. The company announced a partnership with LexisNexis to provide the LexisNexis Digital Library, a customized eLending platform for the legal library market. In 2014, OverDrive completed its headquarters in the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...

suburb of

Garfield Heights, Ohio Garfield Heights is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb of Cleveland. The population was 28,849 at the time of the 2010 census. Geography Garfield Heights is located at (41.421423, -81.602682). According to the Unit ...

. In April 2015,

Rakuten () is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communicati ...

bought OverDrive for $410 million, with the deal set to close in April 2015. OverDrive CEO Steve Potash remained in his position and OverDrive kept its name while operating under Rakuten USA. In 2019, it was reported that private equity firm

KKR KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strateg ...

would be purchasing OverDrive from Rakuten. The price of the sale was not disclosed, though Rakuten said it would recognize about $365.6 million in profit from the sale in the first quarter of 2020. Potash later offered more details about the KKR acquisition in a message to OverDrive's library customers; the acquisition was finalized in June 2020. In June 2020, RBMedia sold its library assets to OverDrive; this includes RBDigital, an app and service for the distribution of digital content. RBMedia and OverDrive are both owned by KKR, with KKR's OverDrive purchase concluded in June 2020. The sale of RBMedia's library division to OverDrive represents a merger of KKR's related assets. On June 9, 2021, it was announced that OverDrive had reached a deal to acquire

Kanopy Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows and documentaries. The service is free for users, but content owners and content creators are paid on a pay-per-view model by the in ...

, an on-demand streaming video platform.

Libraries and schools

OverDrive launched its Digital Library Reserve, a digital download platform for public libraries, in 2002. In 2004, the platform was changed into a DRM-protected audiobook download platform. In 2005, OverDrive installed download stations into

public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamen ...

and added music to its library platform. OverDrive added downloadable videos in April 2006. In 2007, the company launched its School Download Library, an eBook service for K–12 schools based on Digital Library Reserve. In March 2008, the company announced plans to provide MP3 audiobooks to public libraries as well as retailers. OverDrive's Libby and Sora programs for mobile devices can check out eBooks and audiobooks from libraries.

Book Retail

Before entering the library market, OverDrive distributed eBooks to a number of

e-tailers Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of ...

. In 2002, OverDrive was selected as the distributor of

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

’ eBooks to the publisher's online retail stores. OverDrive launched web stores for

Harlequin Enterprises Harlequin Enterprises ULC (known simply as Harlequin) is a romance and women's fiction publisher founded in Winnipeg, Canada in 1949. From the 1960s, it grew into the largest publisher of romance fiction in the world. Based in Toronto, Canada ...

in 2005. In 2008, OverDrive announced that it would provide download services for

Borders Books Borders Group, Inc. (former NYSE ticker symbol BGP) was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily ...

. OverDrive has entered into partnerships with technology companies including

Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the cre ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

Mobipocket Mobipocket SA was a French company incorporated in March 2000 that created the .mobi e-book file format and produced the Mobipocket Reader software for mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and desktop operating systems. The Mobipoc ...

, and

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

. In 2008, Adobe and OverDrive jointly announced that OverDrive would be the co-developer and operator of Adobe

ADEPT An adept is an individual identified as having attained a specific level of knowledge, skill, or aptitude in doctrines relevant to a particular author or organization. He or she stands out from others with their great abilities. All human quali ...

, a hosted DRM service to protect files viewed with

Adobe Digital Editions Adobe Digital Editions (abbreviated ADE) is an e-book reader software program from Adobe Systems, built initially (1.x version) using Adobe Flash. It is used for acquiring, managing, and reading e-books, digital newspapers, and other digital p ...

. In 2012, OverDrive partnered with Nokia to launch Nokia Reading, an eReading app and service for Nokia's Lumia 900, 800, 710, and 610

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

devices.

Products and services

OverDrive's download services include several

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is co ...

products for libraries, retailers, schools, publishers and the military, as well as web-based products for content protection and management.

Events and outreach

OverDrive holds a biennial user group meeting called Digipalooza to train and educate librarians on the download service. Held in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...

, the event focuses on trends, best practices, and outreach ideas for public library download websites. At the 2008

Public Library Association The Public Library Association (PLA) is a division of the American Library Association, is a professional association of public librarians and supporters dedicated to the "development and effectiveness of public library staff and public library se ...

National Conference, OverDrive unveiled preliminary plans for the nationally touring Digital Bookmobile. The traveling exhibit is housed inside an

18-wheeler A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer a ...

and visits public libraries throughout the OverDrive network. Inside the

tractor-trailer A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer a ...

, learning stations guide patrons through all aspects of their public library's download service. As of August 2012, OverDrive has hosted more than 500 Digital Bookmobile events at libraries and community centers throughout North America. In 2011, OverDrive CEO Steve Potash made obvious hints that the

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. ...

would join other major eReaders in public libraries as soon as September 2011. In his "Crystal Ball Report", during the final session of OverDrive's July 2011 Digipalooza conference, he hinted at the month of release. On September 21, 2011, OverDrive began supporting Kindle public library book borrowing. On September 18, 2014, OverDrive debuted International "Read an Ebook" Day, "an annual holiday to celebrate and raise awareness for reading on digital devices". Leading up to and on that day, OverDrive encouraged "readers around the world" to participate "by choosing from millions of free eBooks from their local library or purchasing an eBook from a retailer online". Additionally, throughout the day, OverDrive celebrated "the holiday by giving away tablets and devices every hour on the event website (www.readanebookday.com) and through social media to readers who tell their story of what eBooks mean to them, by using the

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

#eBookDay on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

to tell their story, or commenting directly at the event website.

Criticism

Audiobooks

OverDrive is criticized for relying on

(DRM) protection technology from Microsoft for the bulk of its audiobooks. Microsoft's refusal to update its Macintosh versions of

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as ...

to accommodate the requisite encryption scheme disqualifies Apple computer users from accessing the bulk of OverDrive's audio files, which are formatted as DRM

Windows Media Audio Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The ...

(WMA). In March 2008, OverDrive announced that it would distribute a collection of approximately 3,000 audiobooks in the

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

format, which is more widely compatible. On November 19, 2008, OverDrive also released the OverDrive Media Console for Mac, which allows Mac owners to download and listen to MP3 audiobooks from their library on a home computer. OverDrive's streaming audiobook option—scheduled for release in 2012—will enable Mac users to access many audiobooks that were previously unavailable due to WMA compatibility issues.

Fictionwise

In January 2009, OverDrive informed

Fictionwise Fictionwise, owned by Barnes & Noble since 2009, was one of the largest electronic book sellers in North America with an estimated 1.5 million ebook content units sold in 2008. Fictionwise sold both DRM-encrypted and unencrypted (DRM-free) ebooks ...

that it would no longer be providing downloads for purchasers of

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

s through Fictionwise as of January 31, 2009; no reason was provided to Fictionwise as to why it was being shut down. This prevents previous purchasers from being able to renew their books on new devices. Fictionwise was working to provide replacement ebooks for its customers in alternative, non-DRM-protected formats, but did not have the rights to provide all of the books in different formats.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Overdrive, Inc. Audiobook companies and organizations Software companies based in Ohio Companies based in Cleveland American companies established in 1986 Commercial digital libraries 1986 establishments in Ohio Library resources Book selling websites Ebook suppliers Ebook sources American digital libraries Mass media companies of the United States Software companies of the United States Software companies established in 1986 Retail companies established in 1986 2015 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies