Read With Your Ears!

Before the closure of the Music World, I used to go there almost every weekend. It used to be the most happening place for the music and movie lovers of Kolkata. It was at a crossing in Park Street that was easily accessible for me. A 10-minute walk from the Park Street metro station. It was the world of music and entertainment. Its closure in 2013 has shut down the enjoyment of browsing new music albums. Now when we want to listen to songs, we go to streaming platforms. On the streaming platforms, you get endless numbers of songs, movies, podcasts, and videos. All you need to do is subscribe to them. The shift from CD/DVD to online platforms is accepted by people wholeheartedly.

The rise of audiobooks is a revelation. The online platform audible is a great place to listen to your favorite books. On YouTube, you can listen to audiobooks for free. Audiobook listeners are affluent, educated, young, and urban. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey revealed that nearly a quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds listened to an audiobook in the previous 12 months, more than any other age bracket surveyed and up from 16% in 2016. There is no doubt that audiobooks have a great future. Teachers are suggesting listening to audiobooks to improve pronunciation. But the audiobook industry is still at a nascent stage. When it’s come to the competition with the hard copies, audiobooks always take the second seat. The reason behind this is that you cannot buy an audiobook at a bookstore where you can get thousands of hard copies.

Now I want to go back to the Music World part. The reason I used to go there because I got to able to listen to music for free at the listening stations. Listening stations were the attraction for me more than the music because most of the time I had no money to buy an album.

Here comes the final part, I believe there should be listening stations at the bookstores. At the listening stations, people can be able to listen to their favorite books. The idea is to attract those book lovers who are tech-savvy and loves audiobooks. It’s just like people flipping through the pages of books with a good cup of coffee. But in this case, people will have their coffee while listening to books. It may be a full-book or maybe a chapter. But I’m sure listening stations at the bookstore will be a center of attraction. After listening to some pages of a book at the listening stations, people will head towards the racks to buy the book- either hard copies or audiobooks.

So two things- first, convert your best selling books into audiobooks and sell them in CD or DVD formats. Second, introduce listening stations at your bookstore where people can listen to their favorite books for free.