Landover, MD, January 28, 2021—RBmedia and its sister company Audiobooks.com, global leaders in spoken audio content and apps, today announced strong 2020 performance.
RBmedia produced a record number of new titles across its nine publishing brands—dominating bestseller lists and major industry awards—and claimed a leadership position in creating innovative audio originals. On the direct-to-consumer front, Audiobooks.com added a range of new content and services, while millions of consumers downloaded the app.
RBmedia Publishing Highlights
RBmedia remained the undisputed leader in the spoken audio market with a catalog of more than 50,000 audiobooks, the largest in the industry. In 2020, the company:
- Released more than 7,000 new titles across its nine audio brands—more than other major publishers combined
- Acquired the leading producer of dramatized audiobooks, GraphicAudio, which supports the company’s expansion into multi-actor dramatizations, including sound effects, music, and more
- Produced groundbreaking audio originals including:
-
- Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics—where Dolly shares never-before-heard stories and samples of nearly 100 of her most cherished songs
- Brandon Sanderson’s The Original—an audio-first release and the first title of RBmedia’s audio original publishing partnership with Mainframe, LLC
-
- Led key literary awards and bestseller lists in 2020 with:
-
- 57 New York Times bestsellers
- 3 Pulitzer Prize winners and 1 finalist
- 1 National Book Award winner and 2 finalists
- 3 Booker Prize finalists
- 6 Hugo Award finalists
-
OverDrive acquired the RBdigital library media platform in July of 2020. RBmedia’s audio brands continue to supply their titles to libraries and direct-to-consumer digital services worldwide with record success.
Audiobooks.com Highlights
In 2020, consumers downloaded millions of Audiobooks.com apps from the app stores. The company added over 70,000 new audiobooks to the service, a range of new spoken audio content services, and numerous key product enhancements, including:
- An expanded podcast offering, which now provides access to over 92 million podcast episodes
- New AI technology to improve title recommendations so that members can easily discover content that best fits their interests
- New payment methods in partnership with Amazon, Google, and Apple to provide consumers more flexible and easy ways to purchase
- Title pre-order functionality which enables consumers to purchase new releases months in advance and access them immediately upon release
###
About RBmedia & Audiobooks.com
RBmedia and its sister company, Audiobooks.com, are global leaders in spoken audio content and apps that reach millions of consumers—at home, in the car, and everywhere their mobile devices go. The companies produce and distribute a vast array of audio content, including digital audiobooks, dramatized multi-actor audio, sleep and mediation content, podcasts, audio news, and more.
RBmedia is the largest audiobook producer in the world. With more than 50,000 exclusive titles, our audiobooks continually dominate key literary awards and bestseller lists. The company’s powerful digital retail and library distribution network reaches millions of listeners around the globe. Our titles are available on leading audio platforms, including Audible, iTunes, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, OverDrive, Hoopla, and many more. RBmedia is owned by KKR, a leading global investment firm. Find out more at rbmediaglobal.com.