On September 10, the Audio Publishers Association held a virtual international conference that drew more than 100 participants and focused heavily on current and future trends in audiobooks.
Audrius Meška, a LAB representative who attended the event, shared that the conference discussed how listener habits are changing in different countries around the world, as well as the growth of the audiobook market and subscription platforms. Much attention was devoted to artificial intelligence (AI)—its use in creating and narrating books, labeling AI-generated content, and ensuring transparency. The conference also examined retail trends and how the audiobook industry is changing.
Different Markets, Different Challenges
Colin Hauer, a representative of Hörbuch Hamburg Verlag—one of Germany’s largest audiobook publishers, based in Hamburg—says that about 49 percent of the population in Germany regularly listens to audiobooks, radio plays, or podcasts. His publishing house releases more than 400 new audiobooks each year and operates in the large DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) market, which is home to more than 100 million people.
The popularity of the audio format also strongly drives sales of other formats: as many as 47 percent of Germans who listen to an audiobook or an excerpt from one go on to purchase a print or digital version of it. This market growth is driven primarily by younger audiences and women, and the most popular genres among listeners remain detective stories, thrillers, romance novels, fantasy, and science fiction. In addition, German consumers have exceptionally high standards for sound and voice-over quality, shaped by the country’s deep-rooted tradition of radio plays (audio dramas) and a strong film voice-over and dubbing industry.
The main major players in this market are publishers such as Hörbuch Hamburg Verlag, Lübbe Audio, Argon, and the brand groups owned by Penguin Random House. The German audiobook market is experiencing a boom: in 2025, it grew by 13 percent and reached nearly 400 million euros, driven in large part by the launch of Spotify’s audiobook service.
Streaming grew the fastest (23 percent) and, with a 47 percent share of revenue, caught up with digital downloads (also 47 percent), while the CD format accounts for only 5 percent. Although physical media are on the decline and the CD format fell by 20 percent, it still accounts for about 20 million euros of the market.
Bertrand Rocton, head of digital business at the book publishing group Hachette Livre, stated in his report that there are more than 3,000 independent bookstores in France, which remain the primary venue for the sale of printed books. However, the market faces challenges: although the market for printed books is worth about 4 billion euros, it declined by 2 percent last year.
However, there has been a marked rise in the popularity of audiobooks—the audience doubled between 2024 and 2026. The average age of users is 31, and 55 percent of listeners are men. Looking at the reading habits of the French public, 20 percent of people do not read at all, 50 percent read only printed books, 30 percent choose e-books or audiobooks, and 11 percent read in all three formats.
Currently, there are approximately 27,000 audiobook titles available in French, while there are approximately 870,000 printed books available. Last year, about 3,500 new audiobooks were released, while about 64,000 print books were published. Unfortunately, about half of all audiobooks are still released later than their print counterparts. When it comes to attitudes toward AI, major publishers do not use synthetic voices, and the French Publishers Association has even created the label “Interpretation Humaine,” indicating that the book was narrated by a live person. The most important platforms on the market include “Audible,” “Vivlio,” and subscription services like “Spotify” and “Nextory.”
Stephanie Andén, Head of Global Rights and Publishing Director at Saga Egmont, discussed the audiobook market in the Nordic countries. According to the speaker, the maturity of the market in the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway) illustrates what happens when audiobooks become part of everyday life. Consequently, new challenges are emerging—not in the production of audiobooks (though their volume continues to grow), but in ensuring their discoverability and retaining users. The most popular audiobook platforms operating in Scandinavia are: “Storytel,” “BookBeat,” “Nextory,” and “Audible.”
Of all the Scandinavian countries, Sweden’s market is the most mature. There, audiobooks account for one-third of publishers’ sales and more than half of fiction revenue. Sales are still growing, though at the slowest rate to date (4.2 percent); 33.6 percent of publishers’ revenue comes from audiobooks, and 54 percent of revenue from fiction comes from audiobooks.
In Denmark, total publishing revenue has fallen, while digital formats now account for 37 percent of the market; there is also a noticeable rise in the popularity of English-language audiobooks. Unfortunately, in Finland, audiobook sales fell by about 1 percent, and sales of fiction audiobooks also declined (3.5 percent), but in the children’s and young adult category, they rose by 3.4 percent. Norway has an annual fixed-price law in effect; in 2023, approximately 12 million books were listened to on Norwegian platforms.
More content does not mean more readers. As already mentioned, readers face difficulties not because of a lack of books, but because they cannot find the next book to read. Therefore, in the future, metadata, artificial intelligence, and recommendations will need to help readers find the right book.
Ali Abdelmoneim Ahmed, CEO and co-founder of Arabookverse International, presented the Arab audiobook market. According to him, it only began to take shape in 2017, so it is still quite young. There are approximately 430 million people living in the 22 Arabic-speaking countries and the diaspora, and the book market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is valued at approximately $510 million. As many as 58 percent of consumers are between the ages of 18 and 34, and men account for 56 percent of all listeners. Although North Africa and Egypt generate the highest volume of listening (54 percent), Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries generate 61 percent of total revenue. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt make up the largest audiobook market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The leading apps in this region are “Igraaly,” “Samawy,” “Rufoof,” “Jarir Reader,” and “Wajeez.” “Abjjad” is one of the most important e-book apps; its audiobook version was launched in 2025. “Arabookverse” has strengthened its position as an audiobook publisher by acquiring licenses for 750 new titles and setting a strategic goal to expand its catalog to 3,000 titles by the end of 2028.
In 2020, Storytel merged with Kitab Sawti and became the leading platform dedicated exclusively to this sector. Spotify entered the audiobook market in the Arab world in November 2025, launching the feature in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as part of its new “Premium Platinum” plan. In March 2026, Audible expanded its localized service to key Arab markets, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
After several years of slow growth, revenue from Arabic audiobooks grew by 92 percent in 2024 and by approximately 100 percent in 2025. The dominant platform, Storytel (which holds about 40 percent of the market), is beginning to face competition from new players. By the end of 2025, Spotify and Audible had officially entered Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt. At the same time, local digital platforms (Abjjad, Rufoof, and others) are growing rapidly and already account for about 30 percent of the market.
The Importance of Labeling AI-Generated Works
John Watt, chairman of the Audio Publishers Group, addressed the issues surrounding audiobooks narrated using artificial intelligence (AI). As early as 2024, in collaboration with the Audio Publishers Group and the Audio Publishers Association (APA) from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Europe (a total of about 50 companies), preliminary labeling guidelines were developed. Although the audiobook sector became the first format to address the issue of AI labeling, the recommendations were not mandatory, leading to the use of different terms (such as “virtual voice,” “AI voice,” or “digital voice”) and varying placement of labels across the market.
Although precise data is lacking, the number of AI-narrated books in English on the market has grown rapidly since 2024 and is estimated to be between 80,000 and 100,000. For example, the Publishers Association notes that an illegally AI-narrated version of John Grisham’s book *The Widow* on YouTube has garnered more than 80,000 views. Similarly, the e-book platform Rakuten Kobo revealed that in 2025 it was forced to reject as many as 45% of submitted works because they were created using AI.
A lack of labeling or unlabeled content negatively affects consumer confidence. The report “Dos Dose,” prepared for the Frankfurt Book Fair, notes that 90% of respondents from the audiobook and music industries agree that greater transparency is essential, and that a lack thereof hinders the further development of AI in relation to consumers and authors.
Legal regulations and technological solutions are changing the situation. Article 50 of the recently enacted “Artificial Intelligence Act” (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council), titled “Transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems,” mandates transparency in the use of AI: requires the use of machine-readable watermarks, the inclusion of information in metadata, and clearly informing the user upon first contact or viewing that the content was created using AI.
Audiobooks and Listening Experiences
One of the most interesting presentations at the conference was by Laura Fisher, an analyst at MIDiA Research, who presented a study on audiobooks and listening experiences. MIDiA Research is a UK-based market research, data, and analytics firm that primarily analyzes the music, audio, video, creator economy, and digital entertainment industries.
According to the data collected, the audiobook market is showing steady growth. Globally, 15 percent of the population listens to audiobooks every month.
From the MIDiA Research study, which surveyed 9,000 respondents (from the U.S., Germany, Australia, Canada, France, Spain, Poland, Japan, and Colombia), shows that as many as 48 percent of respondents said they do not listen to audiobooks, while the remaining 52 percent listen to them at least occasionally. Furthermore, as many as 72 percent of users who listen to podcasts every month also listen to audiobooks to some extent, so this audience is viewed as potential new readers.
Users of digital platforms are very loyal, and as many as 49 percent of users who actively listen to books each month say they are not inclined to switch service providers and are satisfied with their current platform. Additionally, 27 percent of audiobook listeners say they haven’t even considered switching platforms. One reason is the reluctance to lose their library of purchased or currently listened-to books.
User behavior is also strongly influenced by the desire to reduce the time spent looking at a screen and to avoid eye strain. According to the survey data, 41 percent of users choose audiobooks to relax or fall asleep, while 21 percent of respondents do not need video at all.
Based on the survey data, there is a particularly strong connection between podcasts and audiobooks. The audience that listens to podcasts is referred to as the “new generation of podcast listeners,” who view audio content as a natural part of their daily entertainment.
The relationship between these two formats is further strengthened by ongoing market changes, as podcasts are increasingly released in video format, thereby demanding additional visual attention. A significant number of listeners choose audiobooks to avoid the effects of blue light.
That’s why platforms like Spotify successfully offer audiobooks alongside music and podcasts, creating a unified listening ecosystem that reduces inconvenience for the user (no need for a separate platform for a different format) and increases subscriber loyalty.
Trends in Global Reading Platforms
The rapidly growing global audiobook market is facing new challenges and opportunities, which were discussed by representatives from Kobo Rakuten, Audible, and Storytel. A notable trend in major global markets is that as much as 85–90 percent of total demand consists of content in local languages, which demonstrates listeners’ strong attachment to their native languages.
Consumer habits are also changing: subscriptions are becoming increasingly popular, allowing users to easily discover new works without major financial commitments. Furthermore, the discussion highlighted that the audiobook is no longer merely an additional format for a printed publication—it is an independent art form requiring its own production and marketing strategies.
Erik Rigters, a representative of Rakuten Kobo, revealed that the company was originally established as a platform for reading digital books and added audiobooks to make the reading experience even more convenient. He noted that the book market is still dominated by traditional print book marketing trends and historically established formats. Speaking about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and voice cloning, E. Rigters raised a deeper philosophical question about reading as a kind of “contract” between the author and the reader. According to him, if one of the parties becomes artificial or generated, the authenticity of this connection is threatened; therefore, AI tools should be directed not toward replacing creators, but toward improving sound quality, editing, and spatial audio.
Paulo Lemgruber, a representative of Audible, shared his experience in launching audiobooks in new markets, such as Latin America, India, and Japan, where this format is often built from the ground up. He emphasized that big-budget projects featuring well-known actors or adaptations of popular TV shows and movies are popular in these countries. They also help attract new audiences.
Assessing the potential of AI, Lemgruber stated that Audible aims to expand its existing book catalog and ensure that every book is available in audio format. Since traditional audiobook production is expensive and time-consuming, AI opens up opportunities to produce audio versions of less popular books. In countries such as India or Japan, where it is difficult to produce audiobooks in the national language, readers welcome AI-narrated books as long as they are clearly labeled as such.
Helena Gustafsson, a representative of Storytel, emphasized that as many as 85 percent of the books listened to on their platform are written by local authors, and that the narrator is considered the essence of the audiobook and its main marketing face. She noted a clear trend: listeners are not just looking for good books, but for entire “worlds” or series in which they can immerse themselves for months on end. Functional listening—that is, short audio recordings designed to help users relax or fall asleep—is also becoming increasingly popular. Speaking about AI, H. Gustafsson emphasized that there is still strong consumer resistance in Europe for moral and political reasons. However, she mentioned exceptions where AI voices are accepted positively—for example, by offering the option to replace a narrator’s voice that listeners don’t like (the “voice switcher” feature, which replaces the voice of a narrator you don’t like with a generated AI voice) or by cloning the voice of a favorite narrator who has fallen ill and can no longer read.
