A New Report From BookNet Canada: “Listening In: Audiobook Use in Canada 2021”

From a BookNet Canada Blog Post:

From how-to guides for enjoying audiobooks and articles that dive into what makes a great audiobook, to data about the growth of audiobook sales, plus Spotify’s large investment in audiobooks, it’s clear that audiobooks are not the future, they’re the present.

At BookNet we’ve been following the evolution of this chapter of publishing for years, including the publication of research studies dedicated to exploring in-depth how Canadians use and acquire audiobooks.

Two years have passed since Press Play‘s release, so it’s time for us to share a

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Borrowing audiobooks

According to OverDrive, the world’s leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools, digital audiobook loans increased 156% between 2017 and 2021. In fact, 30% of all digital library loans in 2021 were audiobooks, up 4% from 2020.

Bringing the focus back to the data collected for the Canadian Book Consumer Study 2021, we discovered that 9% of all library loans in 2021 were audiobooks. On average, Canadian audiobook borrowers borrowed two audiobooks in a single month.

Here are some of the reasons why audiobook consumers chose to borrow instead of buy:

• 46% borrowed books to save money (vs. 47% of all book borrowers);

• 34% did not want to spend money (vs. 41% of all book borrowers); and

• 27% wanted to read the book but did not want to own it (vs. 34% of all book borrowers).

Other highlights

• Adult Fiction titles were popular among 61% of audiobook listeners in 2021.

• Juvenile titles were the least popular subject for audiobook listeners in 2021, at 9%.

• Young Adult was the subject with the biggest increase of audiobook listeners in 2021. Read by 15% of audiobook listeners in 2021, the Young Adult subject category increased by 71% between 2019 and 2021.

• Most Canadian audiobook listeners listened to between one and five audiobooks (48%) on their smartphone (42%) in 2021.

• The average number of audiobooks purchased by Canadian book buyers in a single month was two — the maximum number of audiobooks purchased by a book buyer was 13, while most purchased only one.

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