Not long ago, I read an article that suggested that
audiobooks are a passing trend, something that gained popularity simply because
the technology allowed them to be easier to produce. The author of the article seemed to believe
that the growth in the market was short-lived and, further stated that the
audiobook industry is already facing a decline.
I’m not sure where the author was getting his facts, but that is not the
case. This is, in fact, a very exciting
time to be a voiceover artist, because the audiobook market, and many others
that rely on voiceover continue to grow by leaps and bounds.
At the end of the first quarter of 2016, figures were
publicly released about the audiobook market for the year before. It was stated that the industry had enjoyed a
20 percent jump in a single year’s time.
By the end of 2015, the value of that market surpassed 1.75 billion
dollars. Assuming the average price tag
attached to an audio book is $15, that figure is the equivalent of 117,000,000
audiobooks. The growth continued in
2016, with more and more people signing up for subscriptions to services like
audiobooks.com.
This is a huge market and, despite what the other author
might have suggested, not one that is likely to go away. The average American has a 51 minute
round-trip commute each day. Many are
spending even longer on the road, trains, subways, or other forms of
transportation daily. Audiobooks are
providing a safe and effective form of communication for a large percentage of
those individuals.
The good news for the voiceover artists is that the growth
of that market means more jobs available.
Audiobooks are large projects for voiceover actors and certainly a
desirable niche for those working in this industry. The number of voiceover artists has
undoubtedly increased as well, because technology has made it a career path
much more accessible to the average person. As long as the growth of the audiobook
market, and others like it, continue, this remains a very promising profession.
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