Audible, Spotify, YouTube & Co.: The German Digital Audiobook Market in the Context of Platformization

Abstract

This article examines the contemporary digital audiobook through the lens of platformization and develops a conceptual framework for understanding platformized audiobook culture. Drawing on an integrative review of interdisciplinary scholarship, supplemented by market reports, industry statistics, and audience studies, it uses the German audiobook market as an analytically illuminating example through which broader processes of platformization can be explored. The article situates audiobooks within wider transformations of everyday digital media practices, highlighting the shift from physical formats toward downloads and subscription-based streaming services. Conceptually, it distinguishes platformized audiobook culture from digital audiobook culture through two complementary analytical perspectives adapted from book studies, digital publishing, and media and communication studies: an integrative platform model and a data-environment model of streaming services. Building on this synthesis, the article proposes an ecosystem model of platformized audiobook culture to support future theoretical and empirical research.