Nathan Hull is CSO at Beat Technology powering audiobook and ebook services for the publishing industry.

The year of accelerated disintermediation. The top six audio trends for 2025

Hardly any other topic has occupied the book industry as much as the audio boom this year. In the US, audiobooks have even overtaken e-books. How will the audio market develop? Nathan Hull, Chief Strategy Officer at Beat Technology, looks into the crystal ball.

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Battle lines are drawn

Spotify’s arrival onto the audiobook scene and expansion into more markets was followed by Audible’s addition of audiobooks into Amazon’s music subscription service. What happens next? Undoubtedly new markets will follow for Spotify and they’re already dabbling with exclusive original content. Audible meanwhile  strengthens its role as a go-to original content creator. Will original content for these giants (and the local players) become even more significantly important?

Expect some more consolidation

As these two giants slug it out, is there enough room for the multitude of small international players and local platforms? Do the likes of Nextory, Storytel, Bookbeat continue on their own paths? Or do they buy up even smaller services themselves as a means to expand? Or do one or two merge to strengthen? Or do they get purchased by Spotify or Audible as a growth or content tool in that battle?

Move towards more time-based consumption models

Spotify’s consumer model (15 or 12 hours bundled into your extensive music subscription) unlocked a mammoth catalogue blocker, for the most part this allowing them to mostly align their catalogue with Audible’s. Couple this with some services’ experimentations with time-limited models (packages offering bundles of hours as packages to customer), and there’ll be a gradual move to time-related consumer models becoming more and more apparent if it means otherwise unavailable catalogues can be made available.

Rights stakes raise even higher

Disintermediation has always been there but it will become even more crucial. Authors will be commissioned directly by platforms more frequently for new audio-only works. Agents seeing the increasing rise in value for the format will be even more willing to split print and audio rights and sell to the highest bidder. At which point will traditional publisher start talent hunting for print titles discovered in the audio only zone?

Huge catalogue growth due to AI recordings

While the international and local competitive landscape unfolds, content remains king. 100,000s of titles -particularly from the self-publishing market - remain unavailable in audio form. Expect a flood of AI-generated new titles entering the services. Quality will be challenged and discoverability even more precarious but for the self-published authors who know how to play the self-marketing game well, they’ll be able to capitalise on driving their fanbases to the new format.

Explosion in some new (maybe unexpected) language markets

While the mature audio markets of Europe and the US focus on their own opportunities and challenges, expect over-accelerated audio booms in some unexpected markets. Again, capitalising on the cost-effectiveness and speed of AI audio tools, not all listeners around the world will have the same expectation levels of quality in their audiobooks. Nascent AI recordings can sit alongside traditional human narrations to create booms in MENA, East Africa and central Asia.

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Nathan Hull is CSO at Beat Technology powering audiobook and ebook services for the publishing industry. Beat is the pulse within market leaders Skoobe (DE), Fabel (NO), Fluister (NL), Audiotribe (RO), Volume (PL), Adlibris (SE & FI), Volume (PL), Pegasas (LT), Rahma Raavat (EE) and Jukebooks (GR). Prior to Beat, Nathan launched the curated Dutch service Bookchoice in 9 markets and was Chief Business Development Officer at Denmark’s Mofibo launching in two further markets prior to its purchase by Storytel.

Notably Nathan was also Penguin Random House’s Digital Product Director, with strategic responsibility for its award-winning digital portfolio and innovation strategy working closely with the likes of Stephen Fry, Jamie Oliver, Jeff Kinney, and Roald Dahl’s estate.

As well as having spoken and moderated at major publishing and technology events in over 25 countries, Nathan has also mentored start-ups in 12 countries and consulted for the likes of New York Public Library and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.

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