This book reading is part of author J.K. Rowling’s effort to make her work easier to access during the pandemic. She and her team have loosened the licensing restrictions to allow teachers to read the books virtually to their students while the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing. There are some restrictions around this, however, with the main one being that teachers can only read the books on closed educational platforms like Google Classroom or Schoology, rather than public, commercial platforms like YouTube. Teachers are also encouraged to stick to the books exactly as they’re written.
The Verge
Daniel Radcliffe Reads the First Chapter of ‘Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone’ for Us All: WATCH
May 5, 2020
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Daniel Radcliffe and some superstar celebrity friends and former cast mates including Stephen Fry and Eddie Redmayne, are taking turns recording the 17 chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on video with a chapter being released each week.
The videos will be available for free on harrypotterathome.com, which is part of Wizarding World, and the audio will be accessible exclusively on Spotify.
The first chapter, read by Radcliffe, went online today.
Other celebrity narrators include Dakota Fanning, Claudia Kim, David Beckham, and Noma Dumezweni. The Verge says, “This is a particularly big get for Spotify because last month, Audible announced its exclusive streaming rights to Stephen Fry’s reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”
Watch Radcliffe read the first chapter below.
Surprise! We've got a treat for you…From today, amazing friends of the Wizarding World are going to take turns reading Harry Potter book one.
And to start us off with Chapter 1, we think you’ll agree we have the perfect narrator…⚡️ #HarryPotterAtHome
https://t.co/w9K77akbou pic.twitter.com/Q03PmjeD5d— Wizarding World (@wizardingworld) May 5, 2020
