The Rise Of Audiobooks: Redefining the way readers listen, read and learn

In recent years, audiobooks have gained huge popularity. Especially after the recent hit of the pandemic when print books witnessed a downhill, the rise of ebooks and audiobooks has been witnessing an upward treasury. Gone are the days when audiobooks were just for people with reading disabilities or visually impaired users, rather, today, audiobooks are pulling new audiences into the publishing world- whether that’s listeners who are bored of reading traditional print books, or readers listening to genres in an audio format that they wouldn’t pick up in print. And so, many new publishers and authors are keen on developing their own audiobooks and leverage read-aloud ebook conversion services to convert their existing print books & ebooks to digital talking books.

Introduction to audiobooks

Audiobooks, or “digital talking books,” are voice recordings of the text of a book that readers listen to rather than read. Audiobooks can be exact word-for-word versions of books that can be listened to on any smartphone, tablet, computer, home speaker system, etc. These audiobooks can be easily purchased and downloaded from online bookstores or downloaded free from public domain sites by the readers in the same way as digital music and video.

Audiobooks can be immersive, educational, instructional, or entertaining. These books are completely revolutionizing the way we listen, read and learn, improving the experience of the readers. Audiobooks are great for children as they can increase reading accuracy, improve vocabulary & fluency, improve comprehension and pronunciation. Furthermore, these books are also great for people who are visually impaired, have reading issues, elderly people who have difficulty in reading books, and young readers looking out for a convenient reading format.

Audiobooks market overview

• The Global Audiobooks Market accounted for $2.67 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $13.45 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 22.4% during the forecast period. The global audiobook market is currently observing enormous growth as many consumers are being inclined to listen to the audible version of books, novels, poems of different genres.
• The audiobook market size, measured by revenue, is $1.3 billion in 2021
• The market size is expected to increase by 5.5% in 2021
• 38.6% of the total audiobook market is occupied by 25 to 34 sub-segment of age group.
• Some of the key players in the Audiobooks market include Google, Amazon, Scribd, Audible Inc., Storytel, AudiobooksNow, Penguin Random House LLC, Downpour, PODIUM PUBLISHING, Barnes Noble booksellers Inc., Kobo, OverDrive, LibriVox, RBmedia, NOOK Digital LLC, and Rakuten Kobo Inc.

Factors leading to the growth of audiobooks

Audiobooks started their journey decades ago, primarily catering to users with visual and reading disabilities or elderly people. However, in recent years it has been observed that a positive side of consumer behavior is preferring to move from the physical form of books to ebooks and audiobooks. Some of the major factors leading to the growth in the audiobook segment are:

• The main reason for users listening to audiobooks over reading is convenience – consumers can easily listen to a book virtually anywhere while doing anything from commuting to working to cleaning the house. For those who don’t have as much time to read print books or ebooks, audiobooks make it easier to keep consuming content and stories.
• Great narrating quality, a huge collection of stories, and the availability of a vast collection of renowned books are leading to a huge demand for audiobooks. Additionally, audiobook conversion services can incorporate read-aloud epub features, a smooth user interface specially designed for children or elderly customers, and the availability of the app in various operating system platforms. Together, these factors are responsible for a rise in the percentage of the number of audiobooks listened to by the active users from the last year.
• With advancing technology, the availability of the internet and various IoT devices has made it easier for consumers to avail audiobooks. Additionally, publishers also are benefited from the modern form of technology to convert their physically written manuscripts to audio files easily by leveraging ebooks to audio conversion services. Several new amateur authors, narrators, and publishers are now able to produce a decent quality audiobook, and start their career in the audiobook production profession.
• Another key factor propelling the market growth is that audiobooks are convenient and affordable. These books help the readers to finish a book quickly and gain more knowledge, wisdom, vocabulary as compared to traditional books.
• After the hit of the pandemic, in the past few months, listening has become the way more people have chosen to access books. The audiobook is thus becoming a format that publishers know will grow in the future. Owing to the stay-at-home orders, physical libraries and universities also shut down temporarily resulting in the students and book readers venturing out for digital alternatives, where audio versions are the most preferred ones.
• During this pandemic, market players are offering multiple products to engage their audiences with DTBook conversion services. The booming popularity of audiobooks is on account of the increasing thirst for audio content, which has led to publishers investing resources into the format, building dedicated teams, and leveraging professional ebooks to audio conversion services in order to produce increasingly creative and ambitious listening experiences.

Audiobooks: Creating new opportunities for publishers

Based on the current landscape and future predictions, the global audiobooks market is expected to attain a good growth rate. This highlights the opportunity for various new players and established publishers or authors to tap the upcoming trends and technologies and develop their own audiobooks, addressing client’s requirements. There’s a great opportunity to convert books and ebooks to audiobooks, incorporate creative features, and broaden the audience for books. Publishers can bring content to their consumers and reach more people who are looking to adopt audio as a means of accessing books.

As a publisher, if you haven’t converted your book into an audiobook, you’re missing out on an entirely new and large audience. In today’s fast-moving digital lifestyle, many people want to listen to their books on the go, and this is why audiobooks are created for.

Here are key benefits you can avail by developing or converting your book into an audiobook:

1. Reach a new range of readers:

Audio is a rapidly growing segment in the digital publishing industry. Many people who are dyslexic, blind, or just plain busy are buying audiobooks at an increasing rate. Furthermore, as readers are increasingly looking for convenience and comfort, simple formats, and love the experience of being ‘read to, there is a huge growing market for authors to tap into and reach new readers. With audiobooks’ popularity and ease of access, you can use this opportunity to get their books in front of fresh readers. By expanding your reach into the audiobook market, you will get a chance to expose your books to a whole new range of readers who might never have discovered you otherwise.

2. Target a less saturated market:

Currently, the audiobook market is less saturated than the physical and ebook markets, which implies that self-published authors have less competition to contend with and can be much more easily discovered. Taking professional ebooks to audio conversion services and ebook distribution services, you can develop high-quality audiobooks that can be discovered by new readers, especially if you’re writing in a particular niche, genre, or subgenre.

3. Boost your potential earnings:

If you’re looking to increase your sales potential, audiobooks are one great way to do it. As the cost of converting a book into an audiobook is low, the profit margin for audiobooks is on the higher side. It indeed is a great investment into your future, so look at it that way and take the plunge to make great profits in the long run.

4. Bring your content to life:

If your book is out for a while and not getting a great response, you may notice a change by using audiobook conversion services. You can have a professional narrator to record the story that can capture the essence of your characters and your unique writing style, and help you connect with your readers in a better way.

Looking for reliable audiobook conversion services?

Being a leading name in ePublishing domain, SunTec India can help you transform your print titles into read-aloud digital products while focusing on the user interface, start and end times, media overlays structure, read-aloud controls, and much more. Our professionals can efficiently synchronize the text of your book with the narrative audio file, ensuring that the text gets highlighted as the audio is read. We can help you convert all types of books like travel guides, children’s books, cookbooks, non-fiction, etc. into audiobooks and facilitate the end-users to go through the text as well as improve their language, reading, and speech learning.

With our extensive experience in the ePublishing domain of more than 20 years and technical know-how, we help academic institutions, libraries, archives, and publishers in creating eBooks with the read-aloud features for various devices like Google, Kobo, Apple, etc. Our experts can accurately convert the books to make them more engaging, interactive, and interesting.

For more details check our ePublishing case studies or to get in touch, please write to us at info@suntecindia.com.

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