Audiobooks Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Device Type (Smartphones, Tablets/ Laptops, Others), By Enterprise Size (Large Enterprises, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs))And Regional Forecast, 2024-2032

Audiobooks are transcriptions of a physical book/ other works converted to audio files in order to read it aloud. Audiobooks are becoming one of the calmest ways to nurture a reading practice. Audiobooks have enabled us to literally listen to books anywhere, whether on the commute, vacation or even while in the shower. Technological improvements in the production of audiobooks have engaged multiple activities such as e-mail delivery of documents, digital recording, and usage of tablet computers instead of physical files. The increasing expansion of home-based studios has enabled narrators to shorten the time taken to produce audiobooks along with reducing operational costs.

Currently, the audiobooks trend is towards the younger age group with an increasing user base. This presents an important positive industry development in order to have sustainable growth of the industry in the coming years. This young mob is expected to encourage their families, and probably transform a non-reader into an audiobook listener. Young group of participants might also have inspiration from their peers, thereby contributing to a wider group of potential consumers. This is also expected to change production speed, genre as younger customers might have different listening requirements. Furthermore, another age group of consumers may have different genre requirements, thereby creating multiple opportunities for the companies to tap the untapped market. Thus, listening and buying will differ by age demographic, thereby expanding the sales volume of the range of audiobooks.

Key Players Covered:

Key players in the market have a prevailing presence in the e-books market, owing to the goodwill and brand name. Moreover, these players are expected to have substantial growth in their business owing to the robust marketing strategies and providing multiple genres of audiobooks offerings. Also, these brands have a renowned presence in the global market and have the majority of the shares.

Some of the key competitors in the Audiobooks market include Amazon, Storytel AB, Google, Scribd, OverDrive, Inc., LMBPN Publishing, LLC, hoopla, SAG-AFTRA, INGRAM BOOK GROUP LLC., Kobo, LibriVox & Downpour.

Regional Analysis

North America is expected to hold the largest market share along with the highest growth rate in the coming years. This is owed to the continuous increase in the investments done by the companies in the region to increase the market presence. Moreover, this region is the technological and R&D hub for the majority of the key players to sell create products related to developing and untapped markets.

Similarly, Asia Pacific and Europe are expected to be the prominent regions for the growth of the audiobooks market. This is owed to the presence of capital-intensive companies, along with the high population in the region. The Middle East & Africa and South America, on the other hand, has shown steady growth with minimal changes in the market structure. Also, the companies in the market are shifting their focus to developing economies, thus this region is expected to exhibit minor volatility in the coming years.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is expected to impact the market heavily. This is because of the consequence of the lockdown implemented globally. The majority of universities, classrooms, academic institutions, along with commercial entities have closed down, thereby significantly hampering the growth of the audiobooks market.

Segmentation

Key Industry Developments

• July 2020: Storytel AB acquired a majority of 80% stake at Earselect AB. Earselect AB is Nordic based production company that specializes in cloud-based platforms for producing audiobooks remotely.


• December 2019: OverDrive Inc., announced its changing leadership, as Rakuten handed over its share to KKR. KKR is a US-based investment firm.