The global audiobook industry is currently worth 2.6 billion dollars and part of the reason why we have seen a dramatic increase in profitability is due to digital. This is a large amount of money but is the average person really enamored with the audio format? The overwhelming majority say no.
We poised the question a few weeks ago, do you listen to audiobooks? 537 people responded and 38%, which represented 205 votes said no. 20% said they listen to them regularly and 18% said casually.
I find it distributing that audiobooks are so accessible now, either via dedicated services such as Audible or your local library. Almost every single novel from a major publisher has an audio edition that is released at the same time as print, often voiced by well known celebrities. The fact that people have still not embraced the medium is quite telling. It seems the vast majority of you prefer to read print and e-books, but not digital audio.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
