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Is this the tipping point? With over 100 surveys tallied, there seems to be a pretty clear 50-50 split between those who are listening to audiobook downloads and those who want to hold on to the physical format. As the survey allowed multiple answers, the charts below don’t show that there were the exact same number of responders who said they “only download” and those who said “hope I am never forced to go digital.” Plus, I was amazed to see such strong numbers for audiobooks on a physical MP3 disc (nearly equal to Playaway), given that availability is somewhat limited. And it looks like cassettes and audiobook rentals are on life-support. Certainly food for thought for those charged with selecting audiobooks for public & school libraries! If you are wondering, only one person who purchases audiobooks for a school setting included cassettes in their selection choices. I’m hoping to survey a strictly-teen group to see how (or if) the numbers vary for that sampling. Of course, the results gathered by the Audio Publisher’s Association’s Sales and Consumer Survey is a professional data collection effort. But those of you who have served on an ALA committee with me know my fondness for spreadsheets & graphs   So for your viewing enjoyment, here’s a visual representation of the response to my January 30, 2009 survey. And if you have any ideas for a future survey, leave a comment. I’m always up for another spreadsheet adventure!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Audiobooks, Digital media, Survey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.