remaining one-third of pub-
lishers reported unit sales
platforms such as Google
Play, iTunes, Downpour, or
Libro.fm as their most
important sales channels. All
U.S. publishers agreed that
streaming platforms such as
Spotify, Deezer, Napster, and
Apple Music were the least
important sales avenues.
After subscription services,
the second-most common
sales channel is single down-
loads, followed in the U.S. by
libraries and streaming ser-
vices such as Spotify.
In Latin America and Spain, libraries fall to fourth place and
streaming services move up to third place. Unlike the U.S.
market, the sale of audiobooks to libraries is still a very under-
developed channel in Spain and Latin America. Yet the efforts
undertaken by library e-lending platforms such as eBiblio and
eLiburutegia in Spain, as well as Findaway, Hoopla, Odilo, and
OverDrive in the U.S., are rapidly increasing the sales of Spanish
audiobooks via the library channel. However, U.S. publishers
expect that subscription-based platforms will be the fastest-
growing sales channel in 2019.
Celaya’s study discusses the growing demand for audiobooks
from Spain and Latin America, with demand in Spain likely to
increase more when Audible launches there at the end of this year
or the beginning of 2020. This might be partly why 25% of
audiobooks in Spanish produced in the U.S. are done in Castilian
Spanish, the Spanish spoken in Spain. The other 75% are done in
what is called Latin American Spanish. There is also the subject
of consumer preference. In Latin America, consumers are more
accepting of Castilian Spanish than Spaniards are of the various
Latin American accents. Publishers learned this from marketing
print books and are taking the necessary steps to remove such
barriers to audiobooks. ■Department|BOOKS IN SPANISH
By the end of 2019, Celaya
estimates that the number of
Spanish-language audiobooks
worldwide will hit 10,000,
with overall sales between
$8 million and
$9 million.
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