“Newer formats are evolving and listeners are on the rise”

Audiobooks are gaining popularity in India as well. Here, Esha Chatterjee, CEO, BEE Books, shares her views on the same.

Experience in audiobooks so far…

“We have worked with Audible Storytel and Spotify, the leading audio platforms in the business and we feel it is a growing market. Previously audio stories were limited only to a dramatised version of storytelling of a certain length. Now newer formats are evolving and listeners are on the rise,” tells Esha.

Directly vs assigned rights for production…

“We have only produced one series till now which we sold to Audible recently and it is also available for free on Youtube. The pros of producing content is having the IP and leveraging it across different platforms compared to assigning to a platform who would mostly go for an exclusive deal. Cons would be lack of expertise and infrastructure. Our productions are mostly outsourced which makes quality control difficult,” she shares.

Do celebrities voice help?

“In India, celebrity voices make a lot of difference. They have their own brand, their followers and hence mass popularity and penetration becomes a lot easier. It also increases the production budget for the platform and the platform would assign more marketing budget for productions where there are celeb voices,” tells Esha.

Audiobooks in Bengali…

“Bengal has always had the culture of oral storytelling. Radio many years back brought back the format through Sunday Suspense. And now Youtube is filled with so many channels doing audio stories. But the market for paid listeners are what needs to be tracked. I feel in Bengali, there is a long way to go for paid listenership,” she says.

Trends in audiobooks in India…

“Self Help and mythology is on the rise in Bengali. Previously it was mostly crime and horror that would top the charts,” concludes Esha.