All facets of the business, from publishing to digital media platforms, achieved new heights

Landover, MD, February 28, 2019—RBmedia, a leading spoken audio and digital media platform company, today announced a strong finish to 2018 with double digit revenue growth and a record number of new titles released across its publishing brands.  Customer adoption of the RBdigital library platform achieved an all-time high, and unlimited access content services for audiobooks and streaming video were added to the platform.  Audiobooks.com achieved historic revenue levels and continued its international expansion with a new Spanish-language audiobook offering, Audiolibros.com.

PUBLISHING HIGHLIGHTS

RBmedia continues its growth as the largest independent publisher of audiobooks with the release of a record-breaking 5,500+ new audiobooks in 2018.

Recorded Books’ significant U.S. audiobook releases in 2018 included:

• Fall From Grace by Danielle Steel
• Dark Sentinel by Christine Feehan
• Promise Not to Tell by Jayne Ann Krentz
• Desolation Mountain by William Kent Krueger
• The Disappeared by C.J. Box
• Depth of Winter by Craig Johnson
• Shattered Mirror by Iris Johansen
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown by Jeff Kinney

Recorded Books also announced the acquisition of Danielle Steel’s next 25 works to be published through 2025, as well as exclusive partnerships with Kensington Publishing Corp., Oxford University Press, and others.

Tantor Media had several high-profile titles adapted for TV or film, including John Guy’s Queen of Scotts, Steve Alten’s MEG, and the Netflix original series Altered Carbon based on Richard K. Morgan’s novel of the same title.

HighBridge Audio published the audio edition for Apple’s Book and Audiobook of the Year, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. Additionally, HighBridge released Maria Hummel’s Still Lives, a Reese Witherspoon Hello Sunshine August Book Club Pick.

Christianaudio published more than 300 new titles by top-selling Christian authors, including Adamant by Lisa Bevere, The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, The Third Jihad by Michael Youssef, and Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt.

Gildan Media announced an exclusive partnership with John Wiley & Sons, Inc. to publish more than 650 audiobooks over the next three years, including all frontlist titles, with a primary focus on business, finance, and the well-known Dummies brand, as well as select titles from tech and other key subject areas.

W.F. Howes’ significant U.K. audiobook releases in 2018 included Normal People by Sally Rooney, Milkman by Anna Burns, and Broken Ground by Val McDermid.

W.F. Howes also built state-of-the-art, in-house audio facilities and recruited an expert team of producers in anticipation of increasing the number of books they publish and continuing to produce exclusive audiobook titles.

Wavesound in Australia increased publishing to 90 titles per year through increasing acquisitions of key authors and titles, and established a partnership with Vision Australia providing timely access to 2,000 bestselling audio titles over a 12-month period for the visually impaired.

Wavesound also released The Lost Man by Jane Harper (the #1 bestselling author of The Dry and Force of Nature) and The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton (four-time Miles Franklin award winner).

DIGITAL MEDIA PLATFORM HIGHLIGHTS

Customer adoption of the RBdigital library platform is at an all-time high.  In 2018 the company topped 142 million downloads from RBdigital apps.

The company introduced RBdigital Unlimited Audiobooks, a collection of almost 30,000 multi-access titles that enables libraries to provide “no-holds” audiobooks across a wide range of interests, including major literary prize winners and bestsellers.  Since the cost of this collection is fixed, libraries can now dramatically lower their cost-per-circulation while providing patrons with audiobooks that are always available for checkout.

RBmedia also launched RBdigital Unlimited Video via the app—with unlimited viewing of videos made possible through a seven-day license access model, a first of its kind in the library market.  This service allows patrons to binge-watch content while saving libraries as much as 75 percent compared to other vendors.

In 2018, Audiobooks.com launched Audiolibros.com, continuing their international expansion by serving Hispanic audiobook listeners worldwide. Users can listen to this collection of bestsellers, classics, and newly released audiobook in Spanish via a free iOS or Android app. Also, Audiobooks.com added 35,000 new titles in 2018.

###

About RBmedia

RBmedia is a global leader in spoken audio content and digital media distribution technology that reaches millions of consumers—at home, in the car, and wherever their mobile devices take them. RBmedia produces exclusive titles and delivers the finest digital content—including audiobooks, streaming video, educational courses, entertainment titles, and much more. Headquartered in Landover, Maryland, RBmedia comprises an ever-expanding group of the best brands in spoken audio content and digital media distribution technology. Find out more at www.rbmediaglobal.com.