Audible Brings Read & Listen to Seven More Markets as NielsenIQ Study Finds 34% Are Listening More

Are more people listening, and do they still buy the book? According to Audible, both are showing up in a study it presented this week. On October 8, 2026, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Audible Chief Content Officer Rachel Ghiazza unveiled NielsenIQ's global study "The Future of Listening" in a fireside chat with Erin L. Cox.

The figures below are from Audible's account of that study. Audible's October 8 release does not include the questionnaire or the data tables.

What Audible says the study found

Audible says 18,000 listeners were surveyed across 11 countries. Of those, 34 percent reported consuming more spoken-word audio in the last 12 months than in the year before. More than half intentionally replace screen-time entertainment with audio, and 47 percent attribute a reduction in their social media use to listening.

Parents cite "screen-free entertainment" as the number one reason they encourage kids to listen. Fifty-two percent of parents who are listeners say their children listen too. Audible says nearly every country ranked the top listening occasion as relaxing at home.

"What's particularly striking about this research is the scale and momentum of audio's growth," Ghiazza said. "Audio is continuing to play a growing, evolving role in people's lives. We're seeing audiences listen more, explore different ways to experience stories and increasingly turn to audio as a means of switching off and recharging. In today's world, consumers are craving more fulfilling ways to spend their time, and they're finding that more and more through audio content, particularly as an alternative to screens."

Listening, then print and eBook

Audible says audio is also tied to other formats. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they had listened to an audiobook by an author, then purchased that author's titles in print or eBook. Sixty-one percent of listeners had also read the book after listening to it. Sixty-nine percent listen to audiobooks they had already read in another format.

Since starting with audiobooks, listeners report trying new authors (29 percent) and new genres (29 percent), reading more eBooks (26 percent) and more paper books (22 percent).

Audible distinguishes those answers from its own customers. It says multi-format customers engage with nearly twice as much content each month as audiobook-only listeners. It describes Read & Listen as the feature that connects a user's audiobook and eBook: they can read along while listening, switch between reading and listening without losing their place, and pick up a companion audiobook at a discount.

Seven more markets for Read & Listen

Ghiazza announced at the fair that Read & Listen is coming soon to seven new marketplaces: Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Japan and India. Initially, titles will be available in English and German, with local languages rolling out in 2027.

The release says "soon." It does not give a day, a month, or a price for Read & Listen in those markets.

New countries, household sharing, and bulk audio

Audible says it will launch localized listener experiences in five countries next year: Indonesia, South Korea, Denmark, Norway and Finland. That adds to 11 new countries announced earlier this year at the London Book Fair. Customers in these countries will be able to pay in their local currency and receive recommendations tailored to their region.

Ghiazza also described a new membership plan that would let listeners share audio with others in their household. Audible said it will be looking at ways to bundle memberships as add-ons to subscriptions customers already have. The release does not give a launch date or a price for the household plan or for any bundle.

Separately, Audible for Business is already rolling out in the U.S., with plans to expand globally. Audible says companies can offer the catalog as an employee benefit, and publishers and authors can distribute their own audio titles in bulk for book tours, launch events and more.

On discovery, Ghiazza discussed Audible's investment in AI-powered tools, including Maven, which Audible says can tell what a customer is in the mood for and point them to a next listen.

Genre, narrator, and AI narration

According to the study Audible presented, genre is the single most important factor in which titles listeners choose, followed by topic, with narrator a close third. Sixty-five percent of listeners seek out more books by a narrator they like.

Fifty percent of respondents said they were open to listening to or trying AI-narrated content. Audible says the majority of countries were most open to AI narration for fiction, while Germany and Japan preferred non-fiction. The main driver, Audible says, is quality and transparency. Listeners want to know what they are listening to, and they want it to sound great.

Audible says it has listeners in more than 225 countries and territories, and that it is seeing double-digit growth in total listening time globally, year over year. In Brazil, which Audible calls one of its newest marketplaces, total listening time grew 73 percent over the last year. Sixty-seven percent of respondents feel excited about the future of spoken-word entertainment, particularly listeners in Brazil, Japan, Italy and Mexico.

Why it matters for authors

Read & Listen is widening, without a day on the calendar. It is coming soon to Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Japan and India, first in English and German, with local languages in 2027. If you publish an audiobook and an eBook of the same title, that pairing is what Audible says the feature connects. The release does not say which titles qualify, or when "soon" is.

The survey Audible presented links listening to other formats. Sixty-three percent said they bought an author's print or eBook titles after listening. Sixty-five percent seek more books by a narrator they like. Genre ranked first, then topic, then narrator. Those are shares of this survey, as Audible reported them.

A bulk channel is opening, and AI narration is a listener question. Audible for Business is rolling out in the U.S., with plans to expand globally. Audible says authors can distribute their own audio in bulk for tours and launches. The release does not list rates. Half of respondents said they are open to trying AI-narrated content. Audible says the reason is quality and transparency.

Related desk coverage: Spotify's plan to take audiobooks to more than 180 markets and Audible's Character Guide, Interactive Story, and Visual Explorer.

Sources

• Audible: Audible Reveals NielsenIQ Data: How We're Fueling a Global Listening Surge (October 8, 2026)