2023-12-06 21:03:47
Time.news – Audio entertainment is popular with Italians who dedicate more and more time to audiobooks and podcasts, especially when they drive, do gymnastics, cook or tidy up. A mountain of hours and a growing businessif it is true that almost half of Italians who listen to audiobooks listen to more than one a month (not a little given that the average length of a title is around ten hours) and above all a cultural driving force, given that 87% say they meet new authors thanks to listening.
The numbers released by Audible Compass 2023an international survey carried out by Kantar on behalf of the Amazon company which produces and distributes audiobooks, podcasts and audio series will be presented in Rome on the occasion of “Più Libri Più Liberi” and show a 5% increase in those who consumed audio entertainment in 2023.
The figures seem to disprove the Cassandras who saw listening as a sworn enemy of reading: the two uses, the research says, are complementary: 84% of audiobook listeners are also readers of books, in paper and ebook formats.
Of course, Italy remains a marginal market compared to the German one, but while in Germany Audible – in fact a sort of monopolist of the audiobook market – arrived in 2005, in our country it only landed in 2016. In seven years and medium, however, put together important numbers: sixteen thousand titles, more than three thousand of which are original (i.e. produced by the company and available only on the service). Important numbers and investments, if we consider that around 4 million euros were spent on content creation in 2023 alone.
The voice is one of the guiding factors in the choice of listening: 77% of those interviewed press play if they consider the narrator captivating and engaging. The complete “Harry Potter” saga by JK Rowling, read by Francesco Pannofino continues to be the most loved audiobook in 2023 together with “La portalettere” by Francesca Giannone and “Il Conte di Montecristo”, narrated by Sonia Barbadoro and Moro Silo; “Maxi” by Roberto Saviano is in first place in the podcas rankingt followed by “Black as blood” by Carlo Lucarelli and Massimo Picozzi and from “The great battles of history” by Alessandro Barbero.
“In seven years the audiobook has not taken anyone’s market awaybut it occupied a space that was previously empty” Juan Baixeras, Country Manager Spain and Italy at Audible, tells Time.news, “It was possible thanks to technology – the spread of earphones and the evolution of smartphones and traffic data – and the path we have undertaken has allowed us to considerably increase the local catalogue, passing from the initial 2,000 contents to over 16,000 in Italian today with 6,900 hours of content produced this year alone.”
But what are Italians’ tastes when it comes to audiobooks and podcasts? The first factor that determines whether a content is worth listening to or not, for 84% of Italians, is the genre. As for audiobooks, first and foremost is literature and fiction (51%), followed by mysteries and thrillers (49%) and history (43%).
Speaking instead of podcasts, at the top of Italians’ preferences are contents dedicated to in-depth analysis (40%), followed by History and Science (tied at 38%) and True Crime (30%). The home remains the favorite place to listen to audiobooks and podcasts (69%), who are chosen to relax (45%), as companions during household chores (21%), or as a form of entertainment “away” from screens (19%). Stories on headphones are also confirmed among the best traveling companions of the Italians interviewed (45%): they are listened to both in the car (25%) and on public transport (20%) to reach places of work, study or leisure.
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