INDUSTRYDATA
2007 Sales Survey
AMERICANS ARE TUNING IN TO AUDIO:
AUDIOBOOK SALES ON THE RISE NATIONALLY
Size of Audiobook Market Now Estimated at $923 Million
Princeton Junction, NJ (August 24, 2007) – The Audio Publishers Association
(APA) released the results of the 2007 APA Sales Survey, conducted to gather data and
measure the growth of the audiobook industry. Independent research firm Lewis & ClarkResearch surveyed audiobook publishers during the summer of 2007, analyzing reported consumer sales data from 2006 and comparing current statistics against the
previous year’s findings. This year’s survey showed a 6 percent increase over 2005
with audiobook sales now estimated at $923 million.
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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.
2006 Consumer Survey
AUDIO PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION RELEASES MAJOR CONSUMER SURVEY AND ANNOUNCES INCREASE IN AUDIOBOOK USAGE
Nearly 25% of US Population is Listening to Audiobooks
McLean, Va (September 12, 2006) —The Audio Publishers Association (APA) today released a consumer study, Audiobook Market Survey: Customer Profile, Usage Patterns, and Experiences, that profiles audiobook customers to help better understand their behavior. The new data indicates that nearly one in four Americans (24.6%) have listened to an audiobook in the past year. The market is estimated at $871 million (see 2005 sales survey), a 4.7 increase from the previous year. In a telling sign of the adoption of new technology and industry’s ability to reach a younger audience, downloads and other new media are up markedly since the last survey in 2001.
The Audiobook Market Survey defines the typical audiobook listener in the United States. Compelling demographic data show younger listeners, split evenly between male and female, who live in slightly larger households (many with children) and command a higher income than has been reported in previous surveys. Audiobook listeners also have more education and buy and read more printed books than non-listeners, thus proving that audiobook listeners are well-read and ardent fans of both the spoken and the written word.
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Please contact APA Headquarters to purchase the full report ($1,000 USD)
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