Arm yourself with the latest research and insights from BookNet Canada and its partners relevant to the audiobook market. Link to the Press Play: Audiobook Use in Canada 2020 study: https://www.booknetcanada.ca/press-play-audiobook-use-in-canada-2020 techforum.booknetcanada.ca #TechForum

1. Audiobooks in Canada
June 2020
Noah Genner

3. searches in Google Trends,
from Jan. 2004 through to May 2020
audiobook
Google Trends
audiobooks

5. Data from Canadian Leisure
and Reading Study 2020
● 73% prefer listening to a voice actor and not an author.
● 65% want to be able to select their preferred narrator/have multiple versions or
narrators of the same audiobook.
● 64% prefer audiobooks with sound effects and/or music.
● 40% listen to books at an increased speed.
● 38% are sometimes or always looking for abridged (i.e., shortened) versions of
audiobooks.
● 36% set a timer to stop listening after a specific spot or amount of time.
● 35% of audiobooks listeners share their subscription login with others.
Audiobook ‘Behaviour’

7. About four in ten Canadians
listen to audiobooks

8. Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

10. Who are our listener types?
Light listeners listened to 1-5 books last year.
Moderate listened to 6-11 books.
Frequent listened to 12-49 books.
Avid listened to 50+ books.
Let’s find out...

11. The light
listener
(58%)
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

12. The
moderate
listener
(26%)
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

13. The
frequent
listener
(13%) Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

14. The avid
listener
(3%)
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

15. Reading by Format
(in the last year)
Print book
96%
Ebook
61%
Audiobook
49%
Data from Canadian Reading
and Leisure Study 2020

16. Format Preference
(11% no preference)
Print book
66%
Ebook
16%
Audiobook
8%
Data from Canadian Leisure
and Reading Study 2020

17. Data from Canadian Leisure
and Reading Study 2020

18. Data from Canadian Leisure
and Reading Study 2020

19. Format Preference by Age
18-29 74% 13% 7%
30-44 59% 18% 11%
45-54 59% 21% 8%
55-64 72% 12% 6%
65+ 68% 15% 5%
Data from Canadian Leisure
and Reading Study 2020

20. Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

21. Ways listeners became aware of books %
Recommendation 36%
Browsing by subject in a library or store 30%
Read or listened to other books by the author 27%
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

22. 51% borrowed
46% bought
38% downloaded
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

24. Borrowing
audiobooks

25. Digital audiobook checkouts in
OverDrive’s Canadian libraries
Data from OverDrive

26. Buying/ streaming
audiobooks

27. Formats over time
Data from BNC’s Canadian
Book Consumer survey results

28. 6% downloaded or streamed an audiobook
for free
3% bought, or listened to an audiobook from
a retailer or audiobook subscription service
2% received an audiobook as a gift
In the last year…
Data from BNC’s Canadian
Book Consumer survey results

29. Physical audiobook sales
Data from BNC’s SalesData

30. Data from BNC’s Canadian
Book Consumer survey results
Audiobook Value

31. Most listeners are spending
$1-25
on audiobooks
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

32. Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

34. Data from BNC’s Canadian
Book Consumer survey results

35. Devices
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

36. Smartphones
Data from Audiobook Use in
Canada survey results

37. 2018 2020
I listen to and read the same subjects 57% 55%
I listen to more Non-Fiction than I read 20% 19%
I listen to more Fiction than I read 17% 16%
I only listen to audiobooks 5% 11%
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

38. Fiction sub-genre %
Mysteries or Thrillers 47%
Science Fiction 33%
Fantasy 32%
Short Stories 27%
Romance 23%
Historical Fiction 22%
Literary Fiction 20%
Chick Lit 7%
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

39. Non-Fiction sub-genre %
History 34%
Self-Help 33%
True Crime 32%
Biographies or Memoirs 30%
Health or Fitness 22%
Business 16%
Personal Finance 16%
Cookbooks 12%
Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

40. 1.4K with Canadian contributor listed
(0.7% of 187K audiobooks listed)
Of bibliographic data listed for audiobooks…
Data from BNC’s BiblioShare

41. Data from Press Play:
Audiobook Use in Canada 2020

42. 23% of Canadians are listening to more
audiobooks than they previously did
COVID-19 & audiobooks
“I am just starting to be interested in audiobooks."
Data from BNC’s The Impact of
COVID-19 on Reading survey

43. Thank you
ngenner@booknetcanada.ca
booknetcanada.ca/bnc-research