Audiobooks Best Practices WG

Current State

Production and sales of audiobooks in the North American market have increased significantly across the last decade. Growth rates for audiobooks have led all other formats. Delivery has migrated quickly from physical media to digital downloads and now streaming services. More publishers have entered the market, as have new companies offering different services, including AI-generated narration. Some established service providers have been acquired.

The U.S. and Canadian markets lack a consistent framework to outline the basic practices for producing, describing, and distributing audiobooks. Recipient standards, most of which are not compatible with one another, characterize the landscape. Recently, U.K.-based Book Industry Communication (BIC) commissioned a project that recommended audiobook best practices for the U.K. market. These recommendations have been well-received there.

Objectives

• Bring together companies from across the supply chain to talk about their current efforts, establish and share best practices, and educate the industry on audiobook best practices. With BISG, use this knowledge to inform the book publishing industry.

• Create and maintain liaisons with other associations that work to promote audiobook best practices. Examples include the Audio Producers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the American Library Association, among others.

• Identify unmet industry needs around audiobook production (metadata, file formats, technical aspects of audio production in casting, sound engineering, and mastering) and distribution, including potential developments within the U.S. market. For unmet or anticipated needs, provide resources and education that can help those involved in audiobook production and potentially make recommendations to BISG’s workflow committee and the BISG board.

Stakeholder Impact/Benefits

• Providing a forum in which multiple segments can discuss audiobook best practices and can inform the community and provide a foundation for coordinated change.

• Standards for audiobook creation and distribution can increase speed to market,  reduce costs for publishers and audiobook recipients, and help stakeholders evaluate quality levels.

• Improving the quality of metadata provided for audiobooks can aid with both production,  discovery and user experience.

Deliverables

• Gather available documentation on audiobook best practices, most directly from the U.K. project led by BIC

• Evaluate available documentation to determine its applicability in the North American market

• Propose changes, additions, and enhancements that would serve the North American market

• Where necessary, lead or facilitate discussions among supply-chain participants involved in audiobook production and distribution

• Publish the proposed best practices

• Share and educate the North American supply chain as needed, primarily through programming

Blockers

Representation in key areas needs to be maintained so that the committee can fully address issues. The current workflow committee lacks significant depth in this topic area. The ability to recruit and engage subject matter experts from across the supply chain is critical to the success of the working group.