Illustration by Josephine Moir
As a child, I was never hard to find; all you had to do was follow the sounds of the audiobooks that were my constant companion. I could spend hours listening to the stories they told, my hands occupied by a jigsaw puzzle or Lego set while my mind was transported by a soothing voice to fantastical worlds where gremlins drove trucks and teenagers discovered special powers. The spell would be broken only by my grumbling stomach. So, where most kids had Rihanna and Lady Gaga, the soundtracks of my childhood were the voices of Stephen Briggs and Paul Panting, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Of course, I was far from the first to fall for the charms of the spoken story. The oral storytelling tradition has been found in cultures around the world, from the Celtic bards to the oral myths of Native American cultures. Audiobooks are just the most recent chapter in this tradition, which has persisted despite the advent of drama, poetry and the printed novel. Clearly there is enduring appeal, but to me, this is no surprise. The combination of the writer’s art and the voice actor’s craft is a potent one that unites the depth of storytelling found only in a novel with the enchanting familiarity of the human voice.
Now, the oral tradition has turned the page again thanks, almost exclusively, to Audible, a company that distributes audiobooks digitally on a subscription model. Like most revolutions, it started quietly. The company was founded in 1995 to the sound of crickets, and 6 years later, it was far from a giant. A quarterly report submitted to the SEC in November 2001 reported net revenue of just over $2 million. For comparison, The Penguin Group reported sales of £820 million ($1.18 billion at the time) over the course of the same year. However, in 2008, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon and grew with its parent company. In 2018, research suggested that Audible controlled an enormous 41% of the audiobook market, making it a strong contributor to the sector’s growth. If you listen to audiobooks today, chances are you’re listening on Audible.
Audible has brought audiobooks to the masses, and the main reason seems to be price. At the height of my obsession, prohibitive prices meant not everyone had access to audiobooks. The Harry Potter audiobooks (masterfully narrated by Stephen Fry) are a prime example. With retail prices of between $30 and $45 in the US and similar prices in the UK prior to the mid-2010s, they were often prohibitively expensive even for my audiobook obsessed family. For years, I listened to the first, second and fourth books in the series on loop, desperately wishing that I could fill the gap left by my non-ownership of the third audiobook, The Prisoner of Azkaban. It wasn’t until I was eleven, just before the social dynamics of secondary school pushed audiobooks out of my life, that I found a copy in a charity shop. After years of wishing, I owned the first four. But despite occasional tantalising glimpses on the shelves of Waterstones, I still don’t own the last three in the series.
Audible has put an end to this. A standard membership to Audible will set you back £7.99 a month, giving you a credit that can be redeemed for an audiobook. At worst, then, an audiobook will set you back £7.99. Add in a free trial and unlimited access to the Plus Catalogue, which includes classics like 1984 and Sherlock Holmes, and it is easy to see Audible for the game changer that it is. They have even reinvested into new content, becoming the Netflix of the audio world. And for anyone wondering, yes, The Harry Potter series is there too. Eight-year-old me could only dream.
Thanks to Audible, we are in the Golden Era of the oral tradition. For most of us, this is good news. At the most basic level, there is convenience to consider, as audiobooks bring stories that are normally confined to those stolen moments of leisure into the kitchen, the car, or out on a morning run. But there is more to consider than just this. The audiobook is a truly unique medium and the joy it brings is not simply to the joy of a book. In an audiobook, we hear the interpretation of stories we know well, and sometimes, that interpretation isn’t what you expect. It’s in these moments that we strike gold when the unexpected inflection of a line changes what we thought we knew about a book.
All this can be said from a position of privilege to those who, like me, learnt to read at a young age and did so without too much difficulty. But only when we look beyond this can we see the true significance of the Audible era. For some with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, listening to a well-narrated story can be a liberating experience as it gives access to the rich literary world without the need for effort that detracts from the story itself. Similarly, for the 16% of adults in the UK who are “functionally illiterate”, for the child who has yet to learn to read, and for those who simply don’t have time for reading, the audiobook provides a much needed lifeline. Historically, reading has been the prerogative of those blessed with a predisposition to, and an environment that encouraged, high levels of literacy, but in the audio world, this no longer has to be the case.
Of course, like most companies, Audible is not without its problems. Some worry that the company’s huge market share gives Amazon excessive monopoly and monopsony power that may harm the consumer in the long-run. This may also constitute a problem for writers in the long-term by enabling Audible to drive down royalties. And as a digital platform, Audible’s market dominance automatically privileges the technically literate, tending to exclude groups such as the elderly. However, these concerns are for the most part far off and uncertain. To my mind, they give us no reason not to make the most of the treasure trove at our disposal, and nor do they detract from Audible’s remarkable accomplishments.
All that remains is to sing the praises of the audio medium from the rooftop, safe in the knowledge that there is a cheap and easy way to enjoy it. Let my love point the way. So listen to Pride and Prejudice, Persepolis, or Harry Potter, the choice is yours. Just listen; you won’t regret it.