The Relationship between Audio Books and Reading Habits in a Digital Era

This paper intends to investigate the relationship between reading habits and audio books under the niche market of commercial downloadable audio books. In spite of the booming market of commercial audio books, the reader experience of audio books is still an under-researched area. This is the first paper aiming to investigate how commercial audio books (not audio books for the people with visual impairment) change people’s reading habits in a digital era. The results showed that most participants would think listening to audio books can be equivalent to reading and audio books were more like supplements to printed works for them. Generally, participants in this project thought listening to audio books was more flexible than reading print books. In addition, it was found that downloadable audio books could help improve the experience of listening to audio books (e.g. bigger file space and smaller device size), but that they also brought new problems. According to the users’ experience of listening to audio books, it is recommended that suppliers adjust their pricing model of downloadable audio books to gain more sales and adopt DAISY format to provide a better navigation system for audio books users.

This paper intends to investigate the relationship between reading habits and audio books under the niche market of commercial downloadable audio books. In spite of the booming market of commercial audio books, the reader experience of audio books is still an under-researched area. This is the first paper aiming to investigate how commercial audio books (not audio books for the people with visual impairment) change people’s reading habits in a digital era. The results showed that most participants would think listening to audio books can be equivalent to reading and audio books were more like supplements to printed works for them. Generally, participants in this project thought listening to audio books was more flexible than reading print books. In addition, it was found that downloadable audio books could help improve the experience of listening to audio books (e.g. bigger file space and smaller device size), but that they also brought new problems. According to the users’ experience of listening to audio books, it is recommended that suppliers adjust their pricing model of downloadable audio books to gain more sales and adopt DAISY format to provide a better navigation system for audio books users.