A First Look at Digital Audiobook Tracking from The NPD Group
Digital audio has been one of the highest growth sectors of the U.S. book market for several years. In a mature industry, it’s also one of the only true “whitespace” areas where the publishing industry is gaining new readers. In some ways, audiobooks might be a better native digital format than e-books, especially on smartphones where they can compete with other forms of entertainment more successfully.
Since 2004 NPD BookScan has delivered books industry data, analytics, and industry expertise for publishers, retailers, and entertainment companies. In 2020 NPD added audiobooks to our digital dataset with a beta version of a new service: PubTrack Digital Audio – the first publisher-verified retail measurement service for digital audiobooks in the U.S.