Voices report finds audiobooks enable greater literature consumption

June 6 (New York, NY) – Today, Voices, the world’s leading voice over marketplace, published the Audiobook Trends Report, a report analyzing the habits and trends of audiobook listeners in America. The survey found that audiobooks are quickly growing in popularity, both as a preferred audio experience and as a literature format.

The report finds 67% of listeners say they “read” more in a year with audiobooks compared to if they were to only read books in the text format. When it comes to picking up a new book, respondents were equally divided on how they would prefer to experience it: one-third of respondents said they prefer the audiobook experience, one-third said they would generally prefer to read, and one-third said it depends on the book. 

“The audiobook format allows us to experience stories, stay entertained, or educate ourselves while keeping our hands free, unlocking large blocks of time to consume books in a way that wouldn’t otherwise be possible with a print book,” says David Ciccarelli, CEO and Founder of Voices. “Over the course of time, the flexibility and convenience this format allows means so much more information, knowledge, and entertainment can be shared with eager listeners.” 

Additional findings from the study include:

• Audio allows us to embed literature in our daily routine: Half (50%) of audiobook listeners spend between 1-4 hours per week listening to audiobooks while one-third (33%) spend 5-10 hours per week listening to audiobooks. Listeners said common scenarios to hit play were while commuting or traveling (63%), completing household chores (54%) and while relaxing (44%).
• Narrators can make or break the audiobook experience: nearly 60% of listeners have ditched an audiobook part-way through the story because they didn’t enjoy the narrator, demonstrating that storytelling style, audio quality, and overall performance is a significant factor in how we enjoy media and entertainment.
• Fiction genres reign as top choices for listeners: The most popular genres for the audiobook format are Mystery and Thriller (55%) and Science Fiction and Fantasy (48%). Business and Personal Finance was the least popular genre to listen to, with just over a fifth (21%) of respondents saying they enjoy listening to this genre.
• Listeners are split on AI-voice narration: 53% of listeners would strongly prefer a human narrator, while 47% are fairly open or very open to listening to a digitally narrated audiobook. When breaking this down even further, only 13% of listeners are very open to AI-narration,  and expect an AI-narrated audiobook to provide a similar listening experience to a human-narrated audiobook.

The full report can be read here: https://www.voices.com/company/press/reports/audiobook-habits. For more insights into the world of voice over, visit Voices at: https://www.voices.com/.