The 2019 Headphone Report

Introducing the 2019 Headphone Report: a year of audiobook data from self-published authors and small publishers, collected and analyzed by Findaway Voices.

As more and more self-published authors and small publishers are choosing to distribute their audiobooks wide, the growth we've seen has often outpaced the broader industry. For the first time, we're sharing data and insights that we've gathered and analyzed.

Consumers have never had more options for how to get their audiobooks. Along with growth from existing partners, Findaway Voices announced 14 new retail and library partners in 2019 that helped to drive huge gains in the average units sold per title in both library (264%) and retail (600%) platforms.

And it’s not just the US that’s experiencing the growth. We saw India, with a population of ~1.3 billion, grow more than 7,000% in 2019.

Huge genres like Fantasy and Science Fiction boomed, making those strong categories even stronger. Literary Fiction (a much smaller genre for us), saw growth of nearly 800%.

Another up-and-comer steadily growing: our library partners, which drove 26.2% of all royalties earned in 2019. Libraries are directly increasing audiobook sales and audience size when distribution channels are wide. In fact, 27% of authors distributing exclusively through Findaway Voices made at least double what they would have made going exclusive with ACX.

Check out all our data insights from 2019 below.

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