How Much Does It Cost to Develop an Audiobook App Like Audible?

In today’s fast-paced world, having free time is like a luxury, and many of us are deprived of this luxury. Not having enough time makes it difficult for book lovers to read their favorite books. Here audiobook app development like Audible comes to the rescue, enabling busy individuals to listen to their favorite books even on the go.

Whether you are waiting in a queue, in workout sessions, or commuting, you can listen to the books you want with just a few taps of your phone. No matter whether your favorites are scientific sagas or motivational audio docs, you can get them all at your fingertips. If you are an avid listener, you might already have built up your own listening library. Unsurprisingly, audiobooks apps have made it accessible for today’s busy professionals to connect with the books they love.

From books-on-tape and compact discs (CDs) available in the early 2000s to smartphones becoming ubiquitous in the current digital world, the audiobook market has grown exponentially over the years. The easy accessibility of the internet and IoT devices has further bolstered the demand for audiobooks among book lovers. According to Grand View Research, The global audiobook market was valued at $ 5,364.9 million in 2022 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 24.7% from 2023 to 2030.

The ever-increasing demand for audiobooks app does not seem to go down in the near future, creating endless possibilities for entrepreneurs to capitalize on this growing market trend.

Interested in building an audiobook app like Audible? Here’s a comprehensive blog to help you embark on your audiobook app development journey.

Why Build an Audiobook App like Audible?

We are living in the age of digitalization, where readers prefer connecting with audiobooks to handwritten books. Apps like Amazon’s Audible is one of the top trending audiobook platform allowing book lovers to listen to their favorite podcasts, books, magazines, and newspapers in audio format, anywhere, anytime. With more than 100 million downloads on the Google Play Store, the platform is growing at a rapid pace, creating a lucrative business opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Unsurprisingly, in the ever-evolving realm of technology, the audiobook app development represents a harmonious blend of innovation, convenience, and immersive storytelling. Being a passionate entrepreneur, you can effortlessly cash in on this blend and lure your audiences by building custom apps like Audible.

Cost of Audiobook App Development like Audible

When planning to make an app like Audible, the first question that strikes everyone’s mind is, “How much does it cost to develop an audiobook app?” While the cost to build an app like Audible is one of the most asked questions, it is intimidating to give an exact estimation as the cost is highly variable depending on multiple factors. Some of the most considerable factors contributing to audiobook app development cost are:

• The level of the app’s complexity, features, and functionalities that need to be integrated into the application.
• The number of third-party plugins used in the app to enhance user engagement.
• The platform it will run on. Make sure your app will run on Android or iOS, or you need a cross-platform application that can run seamlessly on both platforms.
• The cost of maintaining and updating the app to ensure its seamless and successful performance with the end users.
• The location of your chosen mobile app development company. For instance, developers located in the US or the UK charge a whopping amount of $90-$110 for an hour, whereas developers in India charge only $20-$70 for an hour.

On average, audiobook app development costs range between $50,000 to $250,000 or more, depending on the app’s complexity and other cost-determining factors mentioned above. Here is a breakdown of the cost to build an app like Audible, depending on the project’s complexity.

To get a better estimation of Audible app development cost, discuss your project idea with a reputed mobile app development company and ask for a quotation.

10 Must-Have Features for Audiobook App Development

There is a long list of audible app features that one can consider integrating during audiobook app development. However, to keep the section subtle, here is a list of the essential elements that ensure smoother performance and higher user engagement. Let’s dive in:

Registration and Profiles

Registration is an essential feature that allows users to create profiles, manage accounts, and track their listening history. Registration with the app can be done in two ways: first is by providing users with information, and second is through social media credentials. Both ways are acceptable and allow easy registration with the platform.

Push Notifications

Push notifications send regular reminders to users about the latest updates, new launches, discounts, special offers, and other important announcements they can be interested in.

Search and Filters

One of the most integral Audible app features is search and filters that allow users to find specific audiobooks based on their preferences, titles, narrators, authors,  genres, or keywords.

Audiobook Playback

Providing users with a seamless audio streaming and downloading option is one of the key characteristics that can make your app a big hit in the market. To do so, make sure to add features like play, pause, rewind, forward, and adjust playback speed. For a more advanced experience, you can also add features to bookmark the content at specific points and make notes for future reference.

Voice Assistance

Voice assistance is one of the most loved features in today’s applications, and audiobooks are no exception. Nowadays, users don’t like typing in the search box to find their desired product. They want something quick and easy. It is why adding a feature like a voice assistant will help increase user engagement.  Through voice assistance, users just need to speak on the mic about their specific search, and they will get the desired result within a moment.

Also Read: The Cost and Benefits of Developing an AI-Powered Smart Personal Assistant App

Social Media Sharing

According to Statista, as of April 2023, there are around 5.18 billion, or 64.6% of the global population, use the internet, out of which 4.8 billion, or 59.9% of the people, are social media users. This data shows that integrating a social media sharing feature that allows users to share their favorite audiobooks with their networks can make your app a huge hit among internet users worldwide.

You may like reading: How to Create a Social Media App in 2023 – A Comprehensive Guide

Multiple Payment Options

You must consider providing users with multiple payment options for subscribing and buying their favorite audiobooks to ensure easy and safe transactions. These payment modes include PayPal, credit/debit cards, UPI, net banking, etc. Ensure a secure and seamless integration of payment gateways.

CMS Integration

Integrating Content Management System (CMS) helps you to create an admin dashboard to manage, upload, categorize, and update audiobook content. CMS displays the content in a presentation layer based on a set of templates.

Customer Relationship Management

It can be one of the most profitable features for entrepreneurs. Integrating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) help manage interactions with existing and potential customers, understanding their preferences and demands in a detailed manner. This in turn, improves customers relationship.

Real-Time Analytics

Real-time analytics is one of the must-have features that help gather essential data based on user behavior, preferences, and usage patterns. This data can be further used to provide personalized recommendations and improve app performance. So, don’t miss to add a predictive analytics tool to improve your app performance.

How to Develop an Audiobook App?

There has never been a greater way to reap the rewards of a growing audiobook market than to build one for your business. However, developing an audiobook like Audible is quite complex and challenging that requires professional competence and experience in delivering similar projects.

The process of audiobook app development like Audible is quite similar to building any other mobile apps. It passes through the same stages of project planning, designing, feature integration, development, testing, and deployment.

To ensure successful audiobook app development like Audible, you must consider outsourcing your project to a professional software development firm with a proven track record of building similar solutions.

Remember that building a successful audiobook app like Audible requires careful planning, visually appealing UI/UX design, seamless feature integration, the right use of technologies, and continuous maintenance. Partnering with an experienced app development company like Appinventiv can help ensure the seamless development and ongoing success of your application.

Read our complete guide on Mobile App Development for Businesses to get a detailed understanding of audiobook app development like Audible.

Technology Stack for Developing An Audiobook App

A skilled app development company uses the right technology set at every development stage. Let’s have a look at some most common technology stacks that are used during Audible app development process.

Where to Find Content to Fill Your Audiobook App?

Once you have built a successful audiobook app, you think of filling it with great content that your audience will be interested in exploring. Well, when it comes to filling your audiobook app with engaging books, you have quite a few options. Let us explore them –

Create Your Own Audio Book

If you have enough resources, in terms of manpower, devices, and money, time, you can consider publishing your own series of audiobooks on the app – something that would be specific to your target audience.

Visit Audiobook Market

Head on to the audiobook marketplace like ACX and CD Baby, and you will find several options, both in terms of books and audio recorders, that will help you fill your Audiobook App.

APIs

API is one of the most effective ways to fill your audiobook app library. APIs like Findaway make titles available to audiobook apps from where users can access them.

Use Multiple Content Types

One of the easiest and quickest ways to fill your audiobook app is to fill it with other content like news, podcasts, magazines, etc. You can create different channels without restricting yourself to just audiobooks.

How do Audiobook Apps Make Money?

How to make money is one of the most integral questions when starting any venture, and audiobook app development is no exception. So, let’s discover some of the most remarkable monetization strategies that can help you make money from your audiobook app in the market.

Author Promotion

Promoting authors is one of the great sources of revenue generation from your app. Many authors and narrators go unrecognized. You can collaborate with these authors to promote them on your app platform in return for a certain amount of payment. It creates a win-win situation for both authors and app owners.

Selling Audiobooks

In this revenue generation model, audiobooks are directly sold to book lovers who are interested in some specific types of audiobooks. No middlemen are involved in this process.

Advertisements

To monetize your audiobooks app, you can also connect with third-party advertisement companies and show their ads on your application. You can also offer in-app promotions of a wide range of audiobooks and other relatable products.

Subscriptions

Audiobook apps like Audible charge their users membership fees after giving a free trial of 30 days. The membership usually covers one free audiobook monthly and offers a 30% discount on purchasing additional audiobooks. Almost all the audiobook apps available today use a subscription model where users have to pay monthly or annually to access their favorite content. The subscription model works in two ways; first, it allows users to listen to a limited amount of books in a month. In the second model, it charges a certain amount of money to users and then allows access to unlimited eBooks.

Some Popular Examples of Audiobook Apps

With the ever-increasing popularity of audiobooks, a large number of entrepreneurs tried their luck in the industry and introduced several audiobook apps to the market. Here are the examples of some most popular audiobook apps, like Audible, that are gaining widespread attention.

Kobo Books

Founded in September 2017, Kobo Books is a leading audiobook platform, greatly designed with its supported nice slider that helps book lovers navigate the book, making it touch-friendly. Kobo’s audiobook subscription services allow users to browse the store for the latest audiobook deals.

Downloads: 10 Million+

Scribd

Scribd is a visually appealing and user-friendly audiobooks app that can be accessible to both Android & iOS platforms. Scribd’s UI/UX design is super catchy, including all the essential details, such as the rating given by past users. Book lovers can listen to their favorite audiobook at a particular or can bookmark it to listen to it later.

Downloads: 1Cr+

Google Play Books

Google Play Books is the first company to introduce an audiobook streaming service in January 2018 at the play store. Over the years, it has become the center of a wide range of digital content, such as comic books, eBooks, textbooks, and audiobooks, which is in sync with all the devices that are connected to the Google account.

Downloads: 1 Billion+

Audible

Amazon’s Audible has created an audiobook revolution. It is the most popular and largest audiobook platform across the globe, available for both Android and iOS users. This leading Audiobook app provides users with 30 days free trial and easy access to over 200,000 books under various genres.

Downloads: 100 Million+

Bring Your Audiobook App Idea into Reality with Appinventiv

The eBook industry has been growing exponentially in recent years, creating endless opportunities for entrepreneurs to cash in on the market. So, if you at any point in time have an idea for audiobook app development like Audible, now is the right time to partner with a reputed mobile app development company like Appinventiv to transform your vision into reality.

With a proven track record in building cutting mobile applications and delivering 1000+ products for many reputed brands, we can help you build a revolutionary audiobook app. The app will be equipped with all the essential features, seamless functionality, and an intuitive user experience that captivates and delights.

Whether you are an aspiring author, a publishing giant, or a passionate entrepreneur looking to build an audiobook app like Audible, we can be your trusted tech partner. Our skilled team of 1200+ technology nerds will help elevate your venture with our innovative and engaging app solutions, taking your business to greater heights.

Partner with us now to embark on your journey to audiobook app development like Audible.

FAQs

Q. How much time does it take to develop an app like Audible?

A. The timeline required to build an app like Audible can vary significantly based on various factors such as the app’s features, design, complexity, platforms (iOS, Android), and location of the app development company. Typically, a basic app with limited features takes around 4-6 months, while a feature-rich application can take around 9-12 months or more.

Q. What are the benefits of Audible like audiobook app development?

A. Audiobook app development like Audible provides a host of benefits to both app owners and users. These benefits include but are not limited to:

• Book lovers can listen to their favorite books on the go when commuting, exercising, or doing any other activities.
• Users can gain access to a vast number of books, magazines, news, podcasts, etc.
• Audiobooks app make content accessible to visually impaired individuals, fostering inclusivity.
• Audible app features like offline listening, bookmarking, personalized recommendations, etc. enrich user interaction with modern technology.
• Audiobooks contribute to sustainability by reducing the use of paper and promoting digital content consumption.
• For authors, publishers, and entrepreneurs, audiobook apps open a new horizon for reaching a broader audience and monetization.

Q. Which industries are adopting audiobook apps?

There are many industries that can benefit from audiobook apps development. These industries include E-learning, Entertainment, Tourism, and many others.

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director