On the first day of Readmagine 2023, Javier Celaya -CEO at DosDoce and always a keen collaborator in Readmagine- opened the session dedicated to audio landscape for the publishing industry, by sharing with the audience a piece of information, published by the Audio Publishers Association. The information is meaningful about the importance that audio has today for the book industry: During the last eleven years the turnover has been growing with double-digit figures worldwide. To this data, Celaya added in his presentation that in the case of the Spanish market -which began later- growth of 50% per year has been observed over the last five years.
The focus of the conversation had three different and crucial points of view to understand the scenario that was being discussed:
- Editing and publishing content.
- Audio production.
- The distribution and marketing of audio content.
In this video you can follow the interesting and insightful conversation among the four experts
Javier Celaya is the CEO and founder of Dosdoce.com. For the last 15 years, Javier has been leading the set-up and launch in Spain and Latin America of very innovative digital platforms such as Bookwire, Storytel and Podimo, among other start-ups and platforms. Throughout the years, Dosdoce.com has published more than 150 studies and reports on the use of new technologies in different areas of the publishing sector (content creation, business models, distribution strategies, marketing campaigns, pricing, etc.)
Lory Martinez is a Colombian-American journalist and podcast producer from Queens, NYC. She is the Founder of Studio Ochenta, a brand new multilingual podcast studio dedicated to raising voices across cultures. She is the executive producer on a number of podcasts for the studio in French, English and Spanish, and hosts Mija Podcast, an audio drama that follows the immigration journey of one family from Colombia to the United States. The podcast is available 3 languages and hit #1 in Fiction on Apple podcasts in both Spain and France. Currently based in Paris, France, she combines nearly a decade of content production experience for radio, (NPR, UN Radio), publications ( Bustle, PopSugar), podcasts (A Poêle, Dinner for One, ExExpat…) to create engaging content in French, English and Spanish.
Michele Cobb, a spoken word enthusiast, is Executive Director of both The Audio Publishers Association and The Podcast Academy. She is also a partner at Forte Business Consulting, which provides Business Development and Association Management services for the publishing industry.
Kurt Thielen is the founder and Managing Director of Zebralution, one of the biggest Digital Distributors for music and audiobooks in the World. He started his career working in a record shop in 1979 and was the Head of Rough Trade Records and later Zomba Records in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for more than 20 years, working with a wide range of acts from New Order and The Smiths to Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. After the company had been sold he founded Zebralution as the first real digital distribution company in Germany with a Worldwide focus. In 2007 the Warner Music Group acquired Zebralution. Since 2010 digital audiobook and especially streaming has become an important factor in Zebralution’s portfolio. In April 2017 Thielen bought Zebralution back from Warners together with experienced industry executives. Zebralution works with all big and many smaller audiobook publishers in Germany but the focus is becoming increasingly international. In October 2018 IG Hoerbuch, the body of the German audiobook publishers, awarded him as ‘Audiobook Person of the Year 2018’.
