The audiobook market is dominated by Audible and in the United States they control 90% of the market. Audible sells audiobooks directly, but they also are the largest distributor to Apple iBooks. When Amazon acquired the company back in 2008 for $300 million and at the time they said they were going to phase out DRM … [Read more...]
Harry Potter: A History of Magic is a new original audiobook
Pottermore Publishing is producing an original audiobook that is going to be titled Harry Potter: A History of Magic. This non-fiction audiobook will reveal some of the hidden stories behind real-world magic and explores some of J.K. Rowling’s magical inventions alongside their folkloric, cultural and historical … [Read more...]
Audible Channels is scaling back on original content
Audible Channels launched in 2016 and primarily comprises of podcasts, audio versions of newspapers, comedy shows and tech news. It is free for Amazon Prime Members and Audible subscribers get full access to all of the content. Channels was designed to draw in new users and hopefully become paid monthly subscribers. It … [Read more...]
Stephen King is going to narrate his next audiobook
Stephen King will be narrating an upcoming audiobook called Elevation, which is a novella and has 144 pages. The book marks King’s return to Castle Rock but strikes a different tone described as “a rebuke to our divisive culture” that’s “joyful, uplifting, and tinged with sadness.” He recorded the audio edition at the … [Read more...]
The Canadian audiobook industry is on the rise
Audiobooks are a booming business; the American Association of Publishers reported that the category now out-earns mass-market paperbacks. Many Canadian publishers are now creating audiobooks using narrators and production companies in Toronto and Vancouver. Companies such as Audible and Kobo are also producing … [Read more...]
Ebook sales decline 3% in first four months of 2018
In the first four months of 2018 publishers revenue increased by $172.8 million (+5.5%) compared to the same period in 2017. Downloaded audio continued its significant growth and revenue for eBooks declined slightly.eBook sales generated $358 million dollars and declined by 3.8% and during the same period last year … [Read more...]
Google Audiobooks introduces Trim Silences
Google Play Books is the only way you can listen to audiobooks purchased from Google and they just introduced a new feature called Trim Silences. This function will automatically truncate long pauses between words or sentences. Most audiobooks are professionally made and remove this sort of thing by default, but some … [Read more...]
Kobo Originals now available on Overdrive
Kobo Originals launched in early 2018 and the program features audiobooks and ebooks. Kobo has been working tirelessly with with publishers and industry partners to find great titles to make available in digital format to Kobo customers in France, the Netherlands and Canada. Kobo has quietly included all of their own … [Read more...]
Brilliance Audio is closing their audiobook store
Brilliance Audio was founded in 1984 and publishes audio books for consumers, resellers, and librarians in the United States. It produces and manufactures unabridged and abridged recordings on compact discs MP3's and digital downloads. In addition, the company produces audio books for other spoken-word audio book … [Read more...]
Audible membership is now $4.95 per month
Audible is running an early Prime Day promotion where you can get three months of access to Audible for $4.95 per month for the first three months. This is an excellent deal because normally the cost of a monthly subscription is $14.95 per month, so this promotion gives you a total savings of $30.Audiobooks these … [Read more...]
Global Audiobook Industry Report for the First Half of 2018
The audiobook industry is experiencing a boom period in the sheer amount of people listening to the format and the entire audio industry is doing solid business. Publishers, narrators, sound engineers, retailers and authors are experiencing a huge financial windfall.Audiobook sales generated $2.8 billion dollars … [Read more...]
People are starting to pirate Audible Audiobooks
Audible has a number of publishing partners and sometimes audiobooks will be removed from a users library. This could be due to a contract dispute or if the publisher decides they want to take their business elsewhere. People who buy a legitimate copy are faced with a conundrum; take the risk that Audible might just … [Read more...]