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Audiobooks are doing better than ever. Just ask Harper Collins. According to a recent earnings call, the publisher revealed audiobook sales exceeded e-books last quarter for the first time ever. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: Chances are there's someone out there right now running errands, headphones in, listening to Julia Whelan narrate "Funny Story" by Emily Henry...
(SOUNDBITE OF AUDIOBOOK, "FUNNY STORY")
JULIA WHELAN: (Reading) Some people are natural storytellers. They know how to set the scene, find the...
LIMBONG: ...Or in their car, listening to Dominic Hoffman reading "Heaven And Earth Grocery Store" by James McBride...
(SOUNDBITE OF AUDIOBOOK, "THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE")
DOMINIC HOFFMAN: (Reading) All those fancy homes down there were swept away like dust.
LIMBONG: ...Or working out, listening to the Laura Lippman thriller "Prom Mom."
(SOUNDBITE OF AUDIOBOOK, "PROM MOM")
ANDI ARNDT: (Reading) Sticky. That was the blood - so much blood. She didn't know a body could lose this amount of blood without going into shock.
LIMBONG: That last one was narrated by Andi Arndt, who's been narrating audiobooks for 15 years.
ARNDT: I do remember really hustling to find out where I could go to in-person events to connect with opportunity-makers and being in that hustle, striving mode.
LIMBONG: She says the big game-changer in the industry happened in 2011, when Amazon's Audible platform launched ACX, which let indie authors publish audiobooks. That led to Arndt running her own production company specializing in indie romance books.
ARNDT: And then romance has also had this huge surge. And so I feel really fortunate to have ridden several waves just out of the freak of timing of when I got into this.
LIMBONG: A couple of those other waves include the rise of podcasting getting people listening to audio content and COVID, says Michele Cobb, the executive director of the Audio Publishers Association.
MICHELE COBB: Because people were looking for something that was entertaining, educational and did not involve looking at a screen.
LIMBONG: According to Cobb, the industry enjoyed consistent growth for more than a decade, bringing in $2 billion in revenue in 2023. The Audio Publishers Association did a survey earlier this summer to find out who exactly was listening to all these audiobooks.
COBB: When I started in the industry in, really, 2000, it was older people listening to cassettes. That's what it was. In today's world, it is people under 45 who are the majority of listeners, and they are bringing their kids into the fold.
LIMBONG: Just a second ago, I mentioned podcasting, an industry that's seen its own ups but also some pretty drastic downs. Cobb says the audiobook industry has mostly avoided that boom and bust cycle by not being tied to advertising.
COBB: We were built on the book publishing model, so that is about purchasing a unit of something. Whether it be in print or in audio, it is - you are buying this particular title. And that is very different than podcasting, which was built on the ad model.
LIMBONG: That's not to say the future is easy peasy for the audiobook industry. Like many other sectors, there are concerns about the future of artificial intelligence. Also, late last year, Spotify entered the audiobook realm. And Michele Cobb says it's early, but there's some cautious optimism about that.
COBB: We are hearing from publishers that there seem to be new people who are listening, but at the same time, we often hear from authors concerned about how the model is going to trickle down and make sure that they get paid.
LIMBONG: Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLUM VILLAGE SONG, "FALL IN LOVE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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