This month we shine the spotlight on the great potential of the children’s market. Kids are listening to audiobooks more than they are reading physical books, schools are embracing audiobooks in their curriculums, and tools are being developed to make audiobooks family friendly. Meanwhile, statistics show that adults are not reading as much as they want to and some turn to speed-listening. Read the debate on whether speed-listening affects comprehension. In other news; Spotify continues to expand its markets, federal cuts to the IMLS are being felt in libraries as they lose access to Hoopla, a record-breaking number of participants engage in this years’ Learning Ally games, and news from the book fairs shows an increased attention to the audiobook market. This month we celebrate a few notable offerings plus interviews with Philip Hanley, Jeff Hays, and Edoardo Ballerini.

Happy Spring and Congratulations to this years Audies winners and nominees. Good audiobook news continues with predicted sales growth and increases in the subscriber base. Spotify provides a platform for indie authors and announces a partnership with Eleven Labs. LALAL.AI paves the way for fair compensation in AI voice training and Octave makes advances in their speech-language model that claims to understand what words mean in context. Jason Reynolds offers a full cast YA title with a soundtrack and a Dean of Online Learning shares his use of audiobooks for lifelong learning.

February is for lovers… of nerds. Nerd out with Nature which presents a comprehensive analysis of audio-based digital narratives in literature. And if you’ve ever tried to wriggle your ears to hear better, nerd on by reading all about the efforts of the superior auricular muscles that assist “effortful listening”. Not a nerd? No problem. There’s plenty of news about influencers, the life saving power of audiobooks, Youth Media Awards, Spotify’s win in court and catalogue expansion, an audiobook publishing survey, lessons from an AI-authored production and posthumous accolades for Jimmy Carter.

The audiobook community welcomes the new year with a host of new partnerships for; S&S, PRH Audio, Amazon, Storytel, Legible, Renault and Kobo. Take a look back at the top book business news from 2024 and a little further back to 1894, when a French writer predicted the popularity of audiobooks. Spanish audiobooks are in the spotlight in Guadalajara, a new audiobook summit is announced for Radiodays Europe and a report on library audiobook circulation is released in the US. Consumer labeling for AI-voiced audiobooks is under review, Brian Murray (Harper Collins) explores the opportunities of AI and an open-source e-book to audiobook converter receives a language support update. A new tool is announced to reduce blushing for sensitive listeners. Audiobooks enhance a welterweight’s boxing career. And finally, grab an eyepatch and sharpen your cutlass to enjoy an interview with Colby Elliott, narrator of Greenbeard by Richard James Bentley.

We open December’s News Roundup with the best of the best-of lists followed by a thoughtful take on audiobook naysayers and an uplifting account of vision-impaired creators. A host of new services were announced by Amazon, Spotify, Spines and ElevenLabs. Consumption of audiobooks is up in China, EU drops antitrust probe and the UK debates the fairness of the VAT imposed on audiobooks. In closing, there is no better time than now, as we embark on a new year, to benefit from an audiobook on the virtues of the Japanese concept of Ikigai.