Sweden-based BookBeat is offering time-of-use audiobook subscriptions in its two new markets, Italy and Spain.

By Porter Anderson, Editor | @Porter_Anderson

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Bookwire in Germany revamps its audiobook approach

Approaching Frankfurt Audio

Yescan still feel the Storytel breeze en route to France. It’s the season, it seems, for audiobook services to break into new markets.

Today (October 12), Niclas Sandin’s exhibition BookBeata Bonnier brand, announced its entry into Spain and Italy.

Spain, as Publication prospects readers know, is this year’s guest of honor at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, which opens in exactly four minutes. Okay, actually, it’s happening October 19-23, but the pre-Frankfurt stag is in the spotlight now, as anyone who gets invited to last-minute get-togethers finds out.

Italy are Frankfurt’s pending guest of honor with their year being 2024 after Slovenia claim the honor next year.

In these newly opened Italian and Spanish markets, BookBeat uses the increasingly popular time-use subscription format. There are three packages, ranging from 10 to 100 hours of listening. The rates run:

• €6.99 (US$6.77) for 20 hours
• €9.99 ($9.68) for 50 hours
• €14.99 ($14.53) for 100 hours

The company, in promotional copy for the two new markets, claims to have over 700,000 titles.

Sandin: “We aim to be a complete platform”

Spain is BookBeat’s 11th market and Italy its 12th. And while the company in its media messaging cites a 94% increase in audiobook growth in Italy and a 137% increase in growth in Spain, both of those numbers are for the year 2020 which was, as we know all, a period affected by the digital acceleration of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has not ended.

These statistics are taken by BookBeat from the Association Italiana Editori (AIE) in Italy and Dosdoce by Javier Celaya for Bookwire in Spain. In its latest report of 2021, the Milan IEA said: “Overall sales of audiobooks, after the increase in the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, have “stabilised”, falling by 11% compared to to this first pandemic year, at €86 million ($96.2 million).

Nicholas Sandin

In a prepared comment, Sandin is quoted, saying, “One of our ambitions is to build the market with publishers by increasing demand and expanding the market for digital audiobooks.

“We don’t want to focus on trying to reinvent the wheel by building a massive catalog ourselves. This is already the core business and the passion of our publishing partners.

“For Italy in particular, we also believe that a fragmented market with many exclusive offers has prevented the market from reaching its full potential. Publishers are losing revenue because their books are only available on one platform , nor do we believe it benefits users. We need to focus on providing users and improving the discoverability of the service.

“We aim to be a comprehensive platform by working with all publishers and promoting the books that we…see our users enjoy listening to. We look forward to learning more about the listening habits of Italian and Spanish users now that we are available with our local platform in both markets. »

Seven-year-old BookBeat, a Bonnier Books brand founded in 2015 and opened in the domestic market, Sweden, in May 2016. The company says it now has over 100 employees and local offices outside of Stockholm in Karlstad, Helsinki , Berlin and Warsaw.

It cites a base of “nearly 600,000 monthly paying users”, the majority of them in Sweden, Finland and Germany.

Much more about audiobooks and the wider audio market will be available at Frankfurter Buchmesse Frankfurt Audio in Hall 3.1, K61. While in Frankfurt, if you would like to send a message to BookBeat CEO Sandin, we suggest you drop by Booth Bonnierforlagen AB in Hall 4.0 at E40.

In Frankfurt, join us for the inaugural edition of Publishing Outlook Foruma two-day program featuring leading and influential professionals from the international publishing industry discussing today’s challenges, dynamics and trends.

For example, “The Audiobook Retail Evolution” explores “the audio retail landscape” as “increasingly complex and competitive, with evolving business models and more sales platforms”. What do publishers need to know to ensure their audiobooks reach consumers? And how is audiobook retail evolving in different global markets? »

Speakers include:

Our Publishing Outlook Forum The program is specifically focused on the business interests of the global publishing industry – the issues and challenges facing the trade, from growing economic challenges to competition from entertainment media for the ‘attention economy’. of consumer attention.

Participation is free for all exhibitors and trade visitors to the Frankfurter Buchmesse. The program language is English. You will find all the details and news in development here.

More information about Publishing Perspectives on Storytel is here, more about us about Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more about book fairs is here, more about digital publishing is here, and more about audiobooks is here.

To learn more about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and its impact on international book publishing, click here.