Audiobook consumer profile Following in podcasts’ footsteps
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20,000 foot view: The audiobook market is at an important stage of its evolution. Similar to podcasts, the niche format is trying to grow amid heightened competition for consumers’ time and attention, while the looming recession puts subscriptions growth and retention under pressure. However, audiobooks have broad genre appeal and room for growth. Like podcasts, audiobooks also have the opportunity to conquer background listening, and may benefit from the blurring of audio formats.
Key insights
- Audiobook listeners are engaged entertainment consumers, with of high audiobook listeners also listening to podcasts and watching podcast videos
- Over a third of high audiobook listeners pay for more than two monthly subscriptions for video services
- Audiobook listeners are older of listen to audiobooks monthly, more than any other age segment) but younger listeners spend the most time and money
- The line between audiobook and podcast formats is blurring, catalysed by streaming platforms investing in, and promoting, both formats
- Audiobooks are well-positioned to take advantage of attention inflation (i.e., people consuming multiple formats simultaneously) by capturing background listening
- Audiobooks have broad genre appeal, as all but one genre (self-help, have surpassed niche penetration among high audiobook listeners
- High audiobook listeners’ top genre is action / adventure, followed by fantasy, drama, and mystery / detective
- Audiobooks can fuel fandom for other types of entertainment – over half of games aficionados listen to fantasy and action / adventure audiobooks
- Audible is the leading audiobook platform, with consumer penetration, but YouTube falls closely behind, with a long tail of smaller platforms
Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Alex Cooper, Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, Apple, Apple App Store, Apple Books, Apple TV+, Audible, Audiobooks.com, Dolly Parton, Google, Google Play Books, James Patterson, LibriVox, Reddit, Reddit Live, Spiracle, Spotify, TikTok, Twitter, Twitter Spaces, YouTube, YouTube Music