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60% of Audiobooks Sold Are Now Digital

The trend isn’t just e-books going digital …

60% of Audiobooks Sold Are Now Digital

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/60-of-audiobooks-sold-are-now-digital_b65744

“According to the Audio Publishers Association, audiobooks are now a billion dollar part of the publishing industry.

Taking results from two studies of the audiobook industry, the association noted that 3.8 million more audiobooks were sold in 2011 compared to the year before–generating a 2.6 percent rise in revenues. Here’s more from the report:

The total number of titles published in the audio format has doubled over the past seven years and publishers continue to increase their output to ensure that the most popular trade books are available in audio at the time the print book is released. Adding to the positive outlook is a 3.2% decrease in returns of audiobooks from 14% last year to just 10.8% this year. Returns as a percentage of overall gross sales have never been this low … The study shows that for audiobooks, the digital download format has eclipsed the CD format with slightly more than 60% of all audiobooks sold today being digital.”

 

Stephen

 

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Posted on: March 7, 2013, 7:06 am Category: Uncategorized

By: stephen

rev="post-17357" 15 comments

15 Responses

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  1. walt crawford said
    on March 7, 2013 12:39 pm

    I know I can’t win this one, and it’s not you, it’s the source, but: CDs are just as digital as downloads, so nearly 100% of audiobooks are digital. (Exceptions: any still on audiocassette or vinyl.)

  2. Stephen said
    on March 7, 2013 1:19 pm

    I thnk the differentiation here is the digital sale as opposed to the digital format. You’re right that the format is digital but the sale is measured differently when it’s downloaded versus sold as a physical item in a physical retail establishment. That’s the disruption – sales distribution versus format (but possibly caused in some part by the format change).
    A digital sale through download is different than the sale of a physical digital item like a CD from the perspective of the pubisher.
    The same transformation is happening in software – always digital – but people rarely buy software in a box anymore, but download it with updates.
    SA

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