The Birth of Audiobooks and How it became Famous
“As a matter of fact published by Kindlepreneur, almost half of all Americans listened to an audiobook last year and the audiobook market is nearly 3.5 billion dollars!”
But how did it all start!?
What is an Audiobook and How is it different from a Podcast?
An audiobook is also known by the other name as ‘Talking Book’ which is a recording of a book or other work which is being read out loud. They are written books whose content is scripted and mostly released in a single go while the podcasts are unscripted episodic content.
The Beginning of Audiobooks
- USA
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many short-spoken word recordings were sold on a cylinder. Thomas Alva Edison was the inventor of this type of recording and sharing. But audiobooks first emerged in 1932 with the establishment of a recording studio by The American Foundation for the Blind. Each side held about 15 minutes of speech. Initial recordings included William Shakespeare’s plays, The Constitution, and the novel “As the Earth Turns” by Gladys Hasty Carroll. More recording companies slowly emerged, mostly to assist people with visual impairment. There are multiple stories of some pioneering companies at that time that emerged and became really successful. Audiobooks gained popularity during the late 1990s and 2000s due to technological advancement. In 1997, Audible pioneered the world’s first mass-market digital media player, named “The Audible Player”.
- India
Coming to India, audiobooks gained mainstream popularity in the Indian market only by 2010. Business and Self Help books were more popular than fiction/non-fiction due to the purpose of self-improvement and education factor. Audiobooks were released in multiple Indian languages, in Malayalam, the first audio novel titled Ouija Board was released by Katha cafe in 2018. And now various Indian companies are making audiobooks in vernacular languages for mass outreach.
The Growth of the Audiobooks Industry
The publishing industry is experiencing a decline according to the report by PBS News Hour as compared to the audiobooks industry. In an annual report of 2016, the sales totaled $2.1 billion which is an 18.2% increase from the previous year. The amount of available audiobooks has also increased from 7,200 in 2011 to 51,000 in 2016.
How it has helped me as a Product Designer
Reading new books, listening to stories, and learning from them are the three things that never stop. It is something that goes on for life. Every little thing has a way to teach you — if you have that eye to catch things. And as people say learning never stops! I’m a product designer by profession and a reader by passion — and this reading habit that I developed over the years helped me to learn a lot of things which eventually guides me to find ways in my design-related problems. In these four years of the product design journey, I came across a lot of people who pushed me to read & explore new books, listen to podcasts & audiobooks, and last but not least motivated me to start assembling my thoughts and write on them which I can share with you people. So here’s to new beginnings, my first blog! In the next chapter, I’ll talk about the research process that I followed to understand the users’ needs and their pain points.
Till then happy reading! See you next time.
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