Reese Witherspoon is going to be producing original content for Audible audiobooks in the next few months. Audible will also be showcasing a number of titles selected by Reese’s Book Club, which focus on strong but complex female characters. The first audiobook that is showcased on Audible is You think it, I'll say it … [Read more...]
Major publishers investment in audiobooks is paying off
Major publishers are continuing to see strong gains from audiobooks in the first quarter of 2018. This is a period in which audiobook retailers such as Audible are experiencing higher than average revenue due to people getting new gadgets for Christmas. HarperCollins stated that downloadable audio accounted for … [Read more...]
InterContinental Hotels now offers free Audible audiobooks
InterContinental Hotels has just signed a deal with Audible to give guests a free download card for a bunch of free audiobooks. The program is called Stories of the InterContinental Life, curated in part by the executive producer of The Paris Review podcast, Brendan Francis Newnam. In order to get access to audiobooks … [Read more...]
Spotify has the right audience to make audiobooks work
Spotify is getting involved in the audiobook space and is in negotiations with Scribd to power most of their catalog. Obviously Spotify is not putting all of their eggs in one basket and has just signed a small deal with Bloomsbury for a bunch of smaller audiobooks that document making albums including Bruce … [Read more...]
Audiobook sales increased by 30% in 2017
Digital audiobooks increased by 25.8% in 2016 and generated $264.8 million in revenue. Last year audiobook sales saw another strong gain of 30% and major publishers brought in $343.4 million dollars. For the first time ever, digital audiobooks have overtaken mass market paperbacks in revenue total revenue earned. … [Read more...]
Spotify might be in negotiations with Scribd for audiobook deal
Spotify is rumored to get involved in the audiobook business with a partnership with Scribd. Spotify has released a new survey asking people about audiobooks and Scribd in particular. It is a given that all of the audiobooks would be ad-free and would be able to be listened to offline. Last month Spotify unveiled a … [Read more...]
Return Kindle Unlimited books early with Kindle for Android
Amazon Kindle for Android has just received an update that has an Audible filter. The app now allows you to separate your books from audiobooks you have purchased or have downloaded samples. If you borrow ebooks from Kindle Unlimited or Prime Reading, you can now manually return them. This is useful if you are … [Read more...]
Audiobooks have a positive effect on mental health
Audiobooks are the fastest growing segment in digital publishing and perhaps one of key drivers in user adoption are the positive effect on mental health. American spends 10 hours a day staring at a screen, in the UK the figure is similar. Audio, on the other hand, stimulates a different sense -- by using our ears, we … [Read more...]
Audible is giving away a free Kindle
Audible has been running a series of promotions in a bid to become the dominant audiobook distribution platform of our time. The company is now giving away a free Kindle Basic when new customers purchase a one year subscription for $129.99. This deal gives you 12 credits as soon as you pay and it is only available for … [Read more...]
Apple Podcasts experience 50 billion downloads since 2005
Podcasting is a gateway to audiobooks and the digital publishing industry is well aware. Well known podcasts are getting book deals and doing original audiobook content for Audible and other online retailers. Apple Podcasts has experienced tremendous success and has just hit a major milestone, over 50 billion podcasts … [Read more...]
Amazon Freetime Unlimited is coming to Alexa
Amazon Freetime Unlimited is coming to all Alexa devices May 9th and this means kids will have full access to 300 audiobooks from Audible and radio stations that have no advertising. Freetime will also give hands free content from Disney, Nickelodeon, National Geographic, and more. The service is free to people who use … [Read more...]
Storytel Launches Audiobooks in the United Arab Emirates
Storytel launched in 2005 and is the dominant audiobook subscription service in the Nordic countries. In the past few years they have branched out across Europe in a quest to rival Audible. When I spoke to CEO Jonas Teller a few months ago he said his big goal of 2018 was to "launch in a couple of new markets and to … [Read more...]