Technology Once Again Transforms the Audiobook Market

Large audiobook publishers that distribute their books via download must also maintain entire departments to deal with issues that most print publishers will never experience. Hefty investments must be made in servers and computer equipment, and technical staff must be hired to maintain the Web site and handle customer-service calls related to downloads and compatibility. Even though CD-duplication costs have come down in recent years, producing and packaging a 10-disc book can carry hefty expenses.

Anderson says that one benefit of the digital format is that publishers can work with books on both the long and short end of the scale. For purposes of distribution and packaging, it doesn’t matter if a book is 10 minutes or 10 hours.

“In the digital world, you really don’t have to worry about those manufacturing constraints, and you’re less limited by running times,” says Anderson.

Rapid Growth in the Industry
The 2006 APA survey revealed audiobook sales of $923 million, a 6-percent increase over 2005. Direct sales to libraries, representing 32 percent of the market, are closely followed by retail sales as being the largest sales channels for audiobooks. Sixty-nine percent of sales are in the fiction category, and 71 percent of the sales are unabridged books.

Goff notes that because audiobooks are intricately tied to technology, their marketability is growing as personal music devices such as iPods become more popular. Such devices used to be more of a youth-oriented product, but people of all generations now see MP3s and digital files as a convenient and cost-effective music medium. And just as newspapers and magazines have recently expanded digitally with podcasts and other Web 2.0 applications, book publishers are learning to take their product to the digital audio world.

One problem that the growing market has experienced is finding the right price point for downloaded books. Because it is an intangible product, consumers generally expect lower prices. Some Web sites offer subscription-style services where, for a monthly charge, members can download a specified number of books each month. Audible.com offers a monthly service for $22.95, where members can download two books per month.