Archive notice: This article was originally published on December 7, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Audible Inc., the world’s leading provider of audiobook downloads, expects revenue of 106 to 108 million US dollars for 2007. This means audiobook downloads are breaking the 100 million dollar barrier for the first time.
Exactly three years ago today, the German subsidiary, Audible GmbH, launched in the German audiobook market. Rapid growth can also be seen in the audiobook market in Germany. The audiobook download segment now accounts for ten percent of the entire audiobook market. In the USA, downloads account for more than 15 percent of the entire audiobook market.
„It took two and a half years for us to sell one million downloads in Germany,“ explains Arik Meyer, Managing Director of Audible Germany. „We expect to achieve the next million audiobook downloads within one year.“
In individual segments, even more audiobook downloads than audiobook CDs are sold. „Our fantasy bestseller „Eragon“, for example, was able to top the already excellent CD sales in downloads,“ confirms Karl-Heinz Pütz, Managing Director of Random House Audio. „And for the future, we expect significantly more with a view to expanded user groups and subject areas.“
„The download opens up entirely new potential – which would not be feasible in the physical market,“ explains Arik Meyer. „Our customers, for example, are demanding more and more unabridged audiobook versions. With some publishers, such as Lübbe Audio, we are actively responding to this need and creating unabridged audiobook versions exclusively for download, while the abridged version is distributed on CD. „The audiobook The Gospel of Paul by Wolfgang Hohlbein, for example, is produced for download with a total length of 28 hours – abridged to approx. seven hours for the audiobook CD. Marc Sieper, head of Lübbe Audio, on this: „The sales figures for the download version were almost twice as high as for CD sales.“
After three years of audiobook downloads, the question is no longer whether audiobook downloads work, but only how rapidly the growth will develop.
