For a third year, the Audio Publishers Association (APA) has found growth of around 20 percent in audiobook sales in the United States, which is the latest sign of an increasingly robust audiobook sector.
As we reported in March, Hachette and Wattpad have partnered to release audiobooks beginning this summer. And as we noted in January from Digital Book World, audiobooks were discussed as the bright spot in publishing. What we like in this new round of research from the APA is several compelling points of who’s listening, and how. Here are some highlights:
- “Twenty-four percent of Americans have completed at least one audiobook in the last year, a 22 percent increase over the prior year.”
- There has been a jump in smartphone listening, up to 29 percent in 2017, as opposed to 22 percent in 2015.
- Fifty-six percent of survey respondents said that when they listen to audiobooks, they’re not doing anything else, “just listening.” This finding seems to contradict not only the common assumption that audio fans listen while doing other things (driving, working out, dog walking), but also the APA’s own survey result in which 78 percent of respondents said they enjoy listening to audiobooks “because you can do other things while listening.”
- When it comes to those who do multitask while listening to audiobooks, “A majority of audiobook listening is done at home (57 percent), with the car as the second most frequently cited location (32 percent).”
- This year’s survey for the first time asked about voice-enabled devices such as Amazon’s Echo with the Alexa software and Google Home. Nineteen percent said they’d listened to an audiobook with one of these devices.
Bottom line: The APA asserts that what’s driving increasing audiobook sales is that best-of-all reason in retail: “a listening audience that continues to grow.” The report also cites podcasts’ popularity as a “gateway” to audiobook listenership.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
