At Spotify’s investor day presentations, global head of audiobooks Owen Smith said that the company’s program that sells subscribers an additional 15 hours of audiobook listening a month (Audiobooks+) for $11.99 is “on track to reach $100 million in annualized recurring revenue this July.” (Financial translation: The means that by July, they expect monthly sales to reach $8.33 million.) To further that growth, they will be adding a higher tier for “power readers” as well as “Family and Student plans.” Smith underscored that, “Almost half of our audiobook listeners are under 35—meaningfully younger than the broader market—and we’re helping publishing […]
Audio
Pirated, AI-Produced Audiobooks Proliferate on YouTube; AAP Partners With Vermillio to Fight It
Pirated, AI-voiced audiobooks are popping up all over YouTube, creating a copyright infringement problem for publishers. The users posting the videos are able to include ads, and make money off of the books. The New York Times reports that a YouTube version of John Grisham’s latest novel The Widow, featuring an “emotionally flat, robotic” AI-generated voice has over 80,000 views. The images that go along with the book, which is about “small-town lawyer in rural Virginia who finds himself on trial for murder” are nonsensical and include: “a waterfall, a family picnicking on a tropical beach, people snorkeling around a coral […]
Audible CEO Bob Carrigan on the Open Book Podcast
Audible ceo Bob Carrigan spoke to David Steinberger on the Open Book podcast, addressing the audiob0ok surge during the pandemic, Audible’s bookless bookstore in NYC, and the role of AI in audiobooks. The pandemic drove the widespread growth of audio, says Carrigan, which was then compounded by return to office. “I don’t really want to talk about positive aspects of a global pandemic because there was really very little about that that I reflect back on with happiness,” he said. “But one of the things did come out of it is that we habituated more of our customers to listening […]
Imprints: Caleb and Kyle Publishing
German independent audiobook publisher Audio-To-Go is launching a new English-language imprint for the US and UK called Caleb and Kyle Publishing. The imprint is headquartered in Ireland. The list will combine English-language originals with previously unpublished English translations of successful German titles and will debut in May 2026. First titles include THE LION’S CLAWS by Mac P. Lorne, from his bestselling Robin Hood series, narrated in English for the first time by John Lee. The first audio originals include Catriona Shine’s HABITAT, Estelle Birdy’s RAVELLING, and Mark McCrum’s THE FESTIVAL MURDERS.
Spotify Shares Page Match Stats; Bookshop Partnership Goes Live
Spotify provided updates on their Page Match feature that they debuted in February, which allows users to scan a physical page to keep their place and switch between audio and print books. The company states that 62 percent of the books that listeners use Page Match to access are books they haven’t streamed before, suggesting that readers are moving from print to audio. In addition, the Bookshop.org partnership that the company previously announced, in which users can purchase a title through Bookshop, which is linked from its Spotify page, is now live on Android devices. It will be available on […]
Audible to Launch NYC Pop Up
Audible will launch a pop up listening lounge in New York from May 1–31. Audible Story House is a three-floor “bookless bookstore,” according to a release, and will feature listening spaces with headphones where customers can sample audiobooks. People can browse audiobooks in the form of “story tiles” and the space will host events including panels, book clubs, and crafting activities, plus a cafe. “Story House arrives at a cultural inflection point where audio storytelling is one of the fastest-growing formats in entertainment, and passionate fan culture around books and audiobooks has never been more alive,” a release states. “At […]