Audible, the digital entertainment content distributor owned by Amazon, has announced that it will invest five million euros in the production of new titles in Spain next year. The figure accompanies a growth path since the US company launched its audiobook service in our country three years ago.

Audible arrived in Spain in 2020 with a catalogue of 6,700 titles in Spanish. Since then, the offer has multiplied to 21,000 titles, with an investment that will reach 4.6 million euros this year and grow to a total of five million and around 24,000 titles by 2024.

Ten countries
According to the company's own data, 51% of Spaniards listen to podcasts and audiobooks on a regular basis. This figure is 16% higher than in 2022, according to the Audible Compass 2023 study conducted by Kantar Public through a survey of 11,000 consumers aged 18-65 in the ten countries where the Audible service is available: the US, Canada, the UK, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Japan and Australia.

Another interesting finding of the report is the parallel existence of audiobooks and traditional books, with 88% of respondents saying that listening to audiobooks allows them to consume more books in other formats over the course of the year. According to the survey, 77% of Spaniards have listened to an audiobook or podcast in the last 12 months; 4% more than in 2022.

Leisure activity
Matthew Gain, Audible’s Senior Vice President and Head of Europe, said, “The audio industry is growing by leaps and bounds, and even more so when it comes to the possibilities of audio entertainment.” He added, “Although content is listened to while driving or on public transport, the Compass results suggest that people around the world are also looking to listen to audiobooks and podcasts as a leisure activity in their own right. This brings the total number of hours listened to on Audible worldwide to more than four billion per year.

Juan Baixeras, the company's country manager for Spain and Italy, said that the study “confirms what we have been saying from the start: that audiobooks are a cultural and literary supplement to traditional books, and that a relationship has been established between the two formats, not just of coexistence, but of mutual enrichment.”

^{Photo: Audible}