Audio Books Online a Growth Industry

The audio books online industry continues to be the highest growth area for book sales.

The audio book industry continues to be the highest growth area for book sales, with the continuing growth of the Internet, and the convenience of downloading audio books onto a computer are both contributing to the audio book market flourishing.

Portable media players have also improved considerably, no longer used by consumers purely just for listening to music; people are now loading in audio books along with music into their MP3 players-iPods and taking advantage of listening to their favorite book whilst jogging, walking or gardening etc.

It is both the advances in technology together with the convenience of listening to one's favorite book's whilst pursuing other activities, that have accelerated the audio books industry growth, there is no sign of this trend slowing down, on the contrary it is increasing.

As reported by the Audio publishers association in 2004, the audio book market was cited as being in the area of $800 million. Between the years 2002 and 2003, audio book publishers enjoyed a 14% increase in wholesale and retail sales. It is expected that audio books will account for approximately 10 to 15% of all sales.
 
The growth of audio books is expected to continue with statistics showing shifts in various formats for audio books to continue, sales for CDs increased from 35% in 2002, to 45% in 2003, while sales for cassettes decreased from 58% to 49%.  21% of all overall sales were abridged (changes made from the original book) and unabridged sales (no changes from the original book) accounting for 71% of total sales.

Purchasing audio books by downloading continue to show increased growth. A 50% increase from 2001 to 2003, and a further 6% increase in 2005.

Book libraries have also noted a general increase for the circulation of audio books in most categories.

Have you downloaded your favorite book yet?

by AudioforBooks

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