Small Business Idea: Audio Books Business
December 6th, 2008 | Author: Noobpreneur | 2,156 views
For entrepreneurs that are always on the go, audio books can be a great companion.
Entrepreneurs like to travel light with almost bare necessities. Bringing books is not the top priority for many, but for entrepreneurs that enjoy reading a lot, this could be a difficult decision.
The solution – audio books.
What is audio books?
Audio books are basically another type of digital books that come in the form of audio files, such as MP3.
Its availability was limited before – in CDs or cassettes, but along with the new advances in audio and multimedia portability technology, audio books market is growing accordingly.
Everything comes in the form of printed books can be transformed into audio forms. For business enthusiasts, business audio books are widely available.
Why audio books business?
The main reason why audio books business is promising has always been due to the availability of portable music players.
Audio books are portable, and can be downloaded and transfer them to MP3 player or iPod. Along with the ever-presence and popularity of portable music players, such as the iPod, Zen Player and Zune, audio books are even more accessible and appealing to people for portable listening.
The niche target markets in audio books business are widely vary: educational institution, coaching program, children entertainment, and many others.
Another niche target market that I think the most promising of all is those who have visual impairment or disability – audio books can offer ease to access information.
How to start an audio books business
You can always start either off line or online audio book business.
For off line audio book business, you can open an audio book shop, supply to other audio-related stores – music shops, libraries, or education institutions to name a few – or mail order audio book business.
For online audio book business, you can start a website where visitors can browse and download audio books directly from the site.
How to source audio books? You can always produce your own, but for an easier route, you can always find suppliers of audio books. Particularly for online audio books business, you can also join affiliate programs of big online audio books vendors.
Tips on starting an audio books business
Just like any other business, freebies always attract customers. Offer free audio books for your customers to download or do a giveaway for customers with a certain amount of purchase.
Ultimately, you should control the audio books quality to ensure the clarity.
Ivan Widjaya
Audio books business
Image by odolphie.
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About the Author
Ivan Widjaya is the Owner/Editor of Noobpreneur.com. He is a web property investor, blogger and web property maker, and currently manages and writes for Franchise Note. He also runs a web design business, Chalcedony Design, specialising in Wordpress theme creation.
Visit Noobpreneur's profile and other posts.
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I love love love audio books. One use of audio books for me is in my car. I quit listening to the radio ten years ago. When I am on long trips the books help to keep me alert and present. The radio and music often made me sleepy. The business idea sounds interesting.
Susan,
Yes – I totally agree with you – I listen to motivational and business audio files while on the go, as they inspire me throughout the day.
Thanks for your opinion :)
I have actually received a couple of requests from my blog readers to create audio version of the content on my blog. Entrepreneurs often simply don’t have time to read and as you have mentioned many prefer audios so they can listen while they drive…etc. Cheers
Aaron,
Have you tried Odiogo before? It converts your blog posts into podcasts automatically.
Check out newfiction.com . They want to work with authors and publishers to produce new audio books.
Tom
Yea. Cool Radio Drama- isoaps in podcast form @ http://www.newfiction.com/
@ Tom & Nick – Thanks for the recommendation :)
For long time I am been think in put together a audio book online store but I dont find too much information about the business… My question is… Can I sell a online book without negotited with the autor? Isn’t that ilegal? and how can I have a permition from the autor or somebody that represent them to sell they audio book? please fell free to send me information.
Hi Soraia,
To answer your question, I think if you sell the audio books as an affiliate or reseller of a large network, then selling is legal (without prior notice to the authors). If not, you have to contact the publisher of the audio books (or if the audio books are ‘indie’ or self-published, the contact the authors themselves.)
Perhaps your best bet is to be the affiliate of the large stores, such as Amazon.com, Audible.com, or RandomHouse.com to name a few.
Or better, any ideas from Noobpreneur.com readers?
Cheers!