INDUSTRYDATA

2009 Sales Survey

AUDIO INDUSTRY HOLDS GROUND IN 2008
APA Survey Reports Sales Figures from More Publishers than Any Other Industry Report

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ – June 23, 2009 – The Audio Publishers Association (APA) released the results of the 2009 APA Sales Survey, conducted to evaluate trends and measure the growth of the audiobook industry. The independent research firm, LewisClarkBoone Market Intelligence, surveyed audiobook publishers and analyzed consumer sales data from 2008, comparing current statistics against the previous year’s findings. The results show the audio industry experienced only a slight drop in sales in 2008, comparable to those of the trade book industry.

For the first time, the APA is releasing the measure of publishers’ revenues, a metric that other publishing industry trade associations use. Revenue reported by 30 member companies is $331 million, down only 6.7% from last year. The APA estimates that the total size of the audiobook industry, based on the dollars spent by consumers and libraries, is close to $1 billion.

Overview:

• CD sales represent 72% of the audio market.
• Downloads grew to 21% of the market.
• The sales of preloaded devices increased significantly, now making up 3% of the total market.
• Cassette sales stayed the same since 2007, accounting for 3% of sales in 2008.
• Unabridged audiobooks made up 68% of the units and 85% of the 2008 audiobook market.

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2008 Sales and Consumer Survey

MORE AMERICANS ARE ALL EARS TO AUDIOBOOKS
28 Percent of Americans Have Listened to audiobooks in the Past Year; Sales Surpass One Billion Dollars

PRINCETON JUNCTION, NJ – September 15, 2008 – The Audio Publishers Association (APA) released the results of the 2008 APA Consumer Survey and the 2008 APA Sales Survey which were conducted to measure the growth of the audiobook industry as well as gain an accurate picture of audiobook listeners’ behaviors. Independent research firm LewisClarkBoone Market Intelligence surveyed a sample of American consumers, as well as audiobook publishers, who reported sales data from 2007.

This year’s Consumer Survey showed that 28 percent of adult respondents have listened to an audiobook in the last year, showing a growth of three percent from the survey results in 2006, and a growing comfort with the audio medium among a broadening base of users. 

This year’s Sales Survey showed a 12 percent increase over 2006, with audiobook sales now estimated at $1,033,760,000billion. Thanks in part to blockbuster audiobook releases in 2007, the growth rate doubled since the previous findings which showed a 6 percent increase from 2005.

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NOTE: The full report is available to members for free; log in to the members section for details. Non members may contact APA Headquarters to purchase the full report ($1,000 USD).

The History of Audiobooks & the Audiobook Industry

• Audiobooks have a unique and fascinating history. In 1933, anthropologist J.P. Harrington, drove the length of North America to record oral histories of Native American tribes on aluminum discs using a car battery-powered turntable. Now, in the 21st Century, the definition of books and publishing is evolving as technology advances and the consumer demands change. Audiobooks allow avid readers to multi-task in today’s hectic world. Consumers can listen to an audiobook as they commute, exercise, or cook. At the same time, audiobooks preserve the oral tradition of storytelling that J.P. Harrington pursued many years ago. Narration, sound effects, and music can complement the reading experience.

• A historical perspective by Marianne Roney: In January 1952, Barbara Cohen and Marianne Roney, sat down with Dylan Thomas in the bar of the Chelsea Hotel and persuaded him to record some of his poetry. Spoken word records were almost unheard of at the time. Cohen and Roney knew that Thomas’s poetry was shocking, moving and important, and that they wanted to record it to preserve the sounds. With the promise of five hundred dollars, and much coaxing and cajoling, a recording session was arranged. Thomas selected the poems, writing the list in his tiny round letters in Miss Roney’s appointment book for Friday, February 15th, 1952. Caedmon Records was born the next week, named, appropriately enough, for the first poet to write in the native language of Old England. February 15th came and went, without Thomas. It is difficult to imagine how much nervous energy was expended in trying to find the lost poet and rescheduling his recording session. On February 22nd, Peter Bartok, son of the composer Bela Bartok, had set up his equipment in Steinway Hall to do the recording. Thomas began the session with “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” Bartok had perhaps expected a quavery poet’s voice, but instead he got a French horn. After some consideration, he adjusted the microphone for a symphonic recording to accommodate Thomas’s sonorous voice. Thomas continued, reading “In the White Giant’s Thigh” and a handful of other poems. And then came the realization that the poems were long enough for only one side of a long playing record. To fill the other side of the record Thomas recorded a story he sold to Harper’s Bazaar, A Child’s Christmas in Wales. This recording established A Child’s Christmas in Wales as a Christmas classic. It is Dylan Thomas’s most widely known work and, as a model of translucent prose, stands as an everlasting testament to his greatness as poet and bard.