BookBeat 'pauses' investment in UK audiobook market

The Bonnier Books-owned BookBeat is “pausing” broader investments in the UK market until more publishers allow their titles to be streamed.

The subscription service for streaming audiobooks, part of Swedish company Bonnier Books, launched in the UK in March last year but has decided to pull its broader marketing campaigns for the service until it can sign more content deals with publishers.

The soft-launch included titles from HarperCollins and audiobook producer Naxos but Niclas Sandin, chief executive of BookBeat, told The Bookseller it has struggled to get any other large publishers on board.

The business, based in Sweden and Finland, charges a monthly fee of £14.90 for unlimited listening, compared with UK market leader Audible, which allows users to choose one new audiobook a month for £7.99 a month, with customers having to purchase any additional titles.

Sandin said BookBeat was “not stepping away” from the UK market but scaling back its marketing campaigns.

“The biggest feedback we have gotten from our users is that they want more premium content. We did a broad marketing push and we had a lot of users joining up last year. And the feedback is that we need a broader coverage of content.

“With this feedback in mind, we have continued discussions with major publishers in the UK which have not yet released their content to us.”

He added: “We have more than 10,000 titles but if we want a sustainable business we need to show that we have more of the front list titles. We need more that add some credibility to our offer. Previously we’ve done radio commercials and spent around £500,000 on marketing campaigns, got a lot of users, but then the feedback is that we need broader coverage of books.

“The response from publishers has consistently been something along the lines of ‘We know the flat rate model probably is the future and the market really could use some competition, but we do not need to stress this and first want to see what happens in the next couple of years’.”

This stance is in “stark contrast to our other markets like Germany, Sweden and Finland where all the big publishers have welcomed the competition of a new audiobook streaming service and released content to us," Sandin said

He believes this is “especially unfortunate as this is a pivotal moment when digital audio growth will be taking off and will increase even more in the coming years”.

“We are ready to commit to increased investments as we believe in the potential of the UK market”, he said. “Unfortunately, UK publishers do not seem ready and have no sense of urgency when it comes to lowering the threshold for competition in the market.”

In the meantime, Sandin said BookBeat would continue with smaller marketing campaigns and would continue to negotiate with publishers.

“Hopefully the negotiations will only take a few months but if it takes a year, then it takes a year,” he said. “We will wait."

Head of the Publishers Association's audiobook group, Sarah Shrubb, believes the UK needs “a diverse and robust market for audio, with as many companies producing and selling audiobooks as possible”.

Shrubb, also audio publisher at Hachette Audio, told The Bookseller that content providers and consumers were still assessing how new models, such as streaming, affected them. “It wouldn’t be at all surprising if it takes a while to adapt,” she said, adding "we’re seeing unprecedented growth in audio publishing, driven by publishers working hard to produce high numbers of excellent titles, retailers working hard to create a slick and attractive supply chain, and customers discovering audiobooks are easy to find and wonderful to listen to, so this seems to be the right time for more players to enter the market.”