‘Nothing too surprising’ regarding increased sales, decreased revenues for audiobook industry

Audiobooks experienced a 4.7% unit sales increase last year, though like much of the publishing industry, the sector experienced a drop in revenue in 2009, according to the Audio Publishers Association (APA). The association recently released the results of the Survey of 2009 Sales, with independent research firm Lewis&Clark surveying audiobook publishers.

Audiobook publishers met the recession by selectively reducing prices on audiobooks in 2009, which contributed to a 12% decline in revenues, but sales increased to nearly 20 million units for the year.

Revenue reported by the 29 member companies for 2009 was $291 million. The APA estimates that the total size of the audiobook industry, based on dollars spent by consumers and libraries, is approximately $900 million.

“The good news is more people are experiencing audio as a result of having value-priced options available, both in the traditional CD format and the growing digital download market,” said Janet Benson, APA president. “It is wonderful to see that the popularity of audiobooks is still holding strong.”

Beth Anderson, chair of the APA Research Committee, added: “Many businesses and industries saw sales drop in 2009. The fact that we saw an increase in the number of audiobooks sold indicates that consumers appreciate the value audiobooks.”

The APA study found that CDs represented 65% of audio revenue and 46% of units sold, while digital downloads represented 29% of audio revenue and 49% of units sold.

The survey also revealed an expected boost in fiction sales and a slight drop in nonfiction sales—a typical occurrence for a non-presidential election year.

Dan Balow, publisher of christianaudio, told Christian Retailing that the results of the survey yielded “nothing too surprising.”

“It was expected (to see) increase units, decreased revenues,” said Balow, who joined christianaudio June after serving as publisher at Oasis Audio since 2006. “The accelerating digital market for audio would decrease revenues, simply because digital pricing is about 30% less than physical product.

“The preeminence of unabridged content is interesting when you think that it was just a few years ago that Christian publishers would publish abridged audio packages, simply to get the price down,” he added. “That issue is no longer significant with digital.”

Balow said the Christian product market, in general, is “very price-value-driven.” “I think audio for the Christian market will mirror that of the general market, decreases of physical product at retail and continued strong migration to digital,” he said. “Christians might be among early adopters of technology, hence digital, because it is less expensive.”

According to the latest figures from the Association of American Publishers, audiobook sales increased 5.1% in May—with sales totaling $12.9 million—and the category’s year-to-date sales were up by 13.1%.