Potter fans heads up. The first book of the immensely popular Harry Potter series will be read by a lineup of celebrities, including Daniel Radcliffe, chapter-by-chapter, in a series of free videos and audio recordings which will be released over the next few months.
Spotify and author JK Rowling announced the release of these free recordings to help children – and perhaps adults – cope with confinement measures,
Radcliffe, the actor who played the beloved wizard character in the books’ cinematic renditions, voiced the first chapter of the series’ premiere novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’ Stone. Watch his read the first chapter here.
He will be joined by a handful of stars including soccer legend David Beckham along with actors Stephen Fry and Dakota Fanning, who will lend their voices to the book’s subsequent chapters.
All 17 chapters will be out by mid-summer, Spotify said, and the recordings will be available free of cost on the music platform, which recently began making strides in the audiobook and podcast department.
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Videos of the celebrity recordings will stream on the website Harry Potter At Home.
“Parents, teachers and carers working to keep children amused and interested while we’re on lockdown might need a bit of magic,” said Rowling in launching that site last month.
The series’ publishers have also temporarily relaxed licensing restrictions, which allows teachers to read the Harry Potter books to their students during remote classes.
Rowling’s seven-part Harry Potter series is the best-selling book collection ever, with more than 500 million copies sold to date. The first novel, published in 1997, is the series’ best-seller, with more than 120 million editions purchased.
