ABP Publishing releases first audiobook NFTs
The NFT series includes many German language best-sellers
German publishing company ABP Publishing has become the first publisher to release audiobooks as NFTs, allowing users to obtain a copy of their favourite audiobook and resell it.
The NFT collection, dropped on the platform OpenSea, include several 2021 bestsellers such as Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art by James Nestor, The Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez, andJust Shut Up And Do It by self-development guru Brian Tracy.
The company also dropped 14 more audiobooks on different topics, ranging from The Effective Executive, a collection of classic writings on management theory and practice by Peter F Drucker, to the far more recent Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out Of Your Head And Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop.
“We see the distribution via NFT marketplaces as a new experience for us and our listeners. Indeed, each book is currently at the listener's disposal as long as the platform where it has been purchased is available. Owning the NFTs, in its turn, allows listeners to have a particular copy of the audiobook forever,” says CEO Andrey Mishenev.
All of the audioooks are in German, with a floor price of ETH 0.01 (around $40 at the current rate). By way of comparison, physical audiobooks are usually priced in the $10 to $40 range.
A milestone in the audiobook market
Although at time of writing the collection had yet to receive any bids, the NFT drop could start a new era for small independent publishers as it allows less popular authors to start earning royalties from secondary sales.
According to Reportlinker.com analysts, the audiobook market In Europe is poised to grow by $1.23bn during the 2021-2025 period, progressing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of almost 19%.
Mishenev said: “Our distribution results show that the interest in audiobooks grows steadily. Compared to Q2 2021, our Q3 sales are increased by 20%. NFT is a growing trend, we understand that the people listening to digital audiobooks are interested in innovative technologies and we doing our best to accommodate their demand”.
ABP Publishing did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
