Audio books are predicted to be one of the fastest growing segments in the audio industry over the next few years. With this in mind, RadioDays Europe has added an Audiobook strand to this year’s conference.
A recent Deloitte report indicates that 270 million people worldwide will listen to audiobooks every month, representing an increase in listenership of 15% year on year. As audiobooks increase in popularity, Deloitte also predicts that audiobooks will account for approximately six percent of total book sale worldwide, a 26% increase in sales year on year.
A study for Frankfurter Buchmesse conducted by dosdoce.com analyses the evolution of the audio book industry to develop a better understanding of the dynamics shaping the global audio book market.
Over the next three years as the consumption model for audio books shifts to mostly subscription services, Dreamscape Media president Sean McManus thinks this business model will move audiobooks from a niche to a mass format.
Hachette’s Maja Thomas says “Hachette takes a global view in exploring markets and technologies that can bring us new readers, and the proliferation of audiobook platforms is increasing the number of consumers who discover and embrace the audio format.”
Helena Gustafsson, Chief Content Officer at Storytel, one of the world’s largest audiobook and ebook streaming services operating in 25 markets and offering more than one million titles in multiple languages, believes “we have not yet fully tapped into the vast potential of some of the world’s major languages with large speaker groups. Therefore, it is essential to continue building local catalogues to grow the audience.”
This impressive growth in audio content consumption has been accompanied by the investment and dynamization of a wide range of streaming platforms such as Audible, Spotify, Storytel, Podimo, Nextory, BookBeat, Scribd, YouScribe, Skeelo, etc, that are making this industry grow with the introduction new business models.
“With such a surge in the number of titles being created, quality management and then discoverability is a major concern in the publishing industry. The marketing of audio-specific works will become paramount for traditional publishers as they seek to get their titles seen then heard above the noise as platforms create and market more and more of their own recordings” says Nathan Hull, Chief Strategy Officer at Beat Technology.
But this growing challenge in the audio industry can also become a business opportunity for the publishing community. “As the love of the audio format grows, the ongoing beneficiaries are studios, producers, narrators, editors, casting directors, tech solutions and everyone else involved in the process. As traditional publishers realise they’re no longer the only creators on the block, these routes may make sense for them to explore. Owning their own platforms and listener relationships would be a logical step too” suggested Nathan Hull.
“The audiobook industry has always been on the cutting edge of technology in publishing,” according to Amanda D’Acierno, Global President & Publisher of PRH Audio.
“Advances in technology have been one the strongest drivers of audiobook growth. But, we need to remember that a great audiobook with a stellar performance by an actor or author is very difficult to replicate. With that in mind, we’re focused on integrating AI in our pre and post-production work and publishing processes, while continuing to evaluate the exciting developments in synthetic voice. These developments will help us expand our capacity to record many more titles on audio.”
Consensus about the growth of the audio book market is consistent across all the analysis, but just how that will happen and which sectors of the audio industry will benefit most are not yet clear. Will jobs for audio production studios and voice actors gravitate to audio books in coming yers? Some of those evolving dynamics will be explored in the Audio book stream of RadioDays Europe 2025 next month in Athens.