2025: A Year of Innovation, Insights and Exciting New Releases
The world’s love of listening continues to grow, and in 2025, we delivered even more amazing audio adaptations, award-winning productions and innovative tools to help bring storytelling to life in unforgettable ways. Here are some of this year’s top moments at Audible.
The World is Calling for More Audio Storytelling, and We’re Listening
Audible makes a big impression at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Demand for audiobook listening continues to grow, and yet the vast majority of print titles are still not available in audio. We discussed the tremendous opportunity this presents for publishers and producers at industry gatherings in London, Frankfurt, Mexico City and Guadalajara and shared our technology-driven solutions, such as AI narration and translation, in beta, and voice replicas for independent narrators, to help bring the millions of previously unpublished books to audio in listeners’ native languages. For instance, there are 486 million native Spanish speakers globally, but only about 50,000 audiobooks in Spanish — a gap we are helping to fill by working closely with creators to produce more Spanish-language audio content. At these worldwide gatherings, we also shared insightful trends, gleaned from Audible’s 2025 Compass research, that show where and how people are listening in different countries and which genres are captivating people the most — in particular sci-fi/fantasy, romance and mystery/thriller.
We Made Magic With the All-New Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions
Go in the studio with the cast and directors as they bring the well-loved characters from “Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions” to life.
Never before have we done something at the scale of Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions. Our groundbreaking production with Pottermore Publishing, two years in the making, brings all seven unabridged Harry Potter books to life, with more than 500 beloved characters voiced by an all-star cast including Hugh Laurie, Keira Knightly, Matthew MacFadyen, Riz Ahmed, Kit Harington and many more. The production involved more than 4,000 hours of recording, with an original score and fully detailed sound design captured in real-world settings like vintage steam trains and historic Devonshire houses. For the release of the first installment, we celebrated with fans across the globe in a massive virtual event, followed by immersive takeovers in major cities and transportation hubs, plus surprise touches of magic in everyday spaces.
Awards Season Came All Year Long
Andrew Durand earned his first Tony nomination for “Dead Outlaw,” produced by Audible Theater. (Photo: Matthew Murphy)
Our original content continued to push the envelope and earn top honors. Following its acclaimed 2024 Off-Broadway run and multiple award wins, Audible Theater’s Dead Outlaw made its Broadway debut to rave reviews, earning seven Tony Award nominations. In May, Audible Theater and Kate Navin, Audible’s Head of Creative Development for North America, were honored with Drama League’s Contribution to the Theatre Award for our commitment to advancing American theater through our many commissioned plays and musicals. And finally, Audible and journalist Trevor Aaronson won a prestigious Peabody Award for Pulse: The Untold Story. The powerful Audible Original, which delves into unreported context behind the mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub and raises startling questions about the FBI’s handling of the tragedy, was selected “for the rigor of its journalism, grace of its sensitivity, and service to the truth.”
The World Fell in Love with Mr. Darcy All Over Again
We celebrated the release of “Pride and Prejudice” with immersive events like romantic boat rides through New York’s Central Park with costumed performers.
Call us hopeless romantics. We reimagined Jane Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice as a full-cast, intimate audio experience that puts listeners inside Elizabeth Bennett’s head while her legendary love story unfolds around her in cinematic detail with an emotional original score. And we didn’t stop there: we released versions in German, Italian, French, Castillian Spanish, and Brazilian Portugeuse, each with distinct casts voicing the iconic roles. To celebrate the launch of Pride and Prejudice, along with Audible’s extensive romance offering, we swept fans off their feet with transportive events and swoonworthy takeovers all over the world.
Finding a New Listen Got Even More Personal
New features allow Audible users to dig deeper into the story without interrupting their listening.
Our tech and product teams released a slew of updates and new features throughout the year that made the Audible experience even more personalized and engaging, including adding the ability to ask a question about the story they’re listening to without interrupting the experience. Enhancements to our search and discoverability features allow users to easily ask for and discover ultra-specific content they’re in the mood for, while new integrations let listeners quickly access their Goodreads Want to Read lists and the hottest #BookTok sensations.
A Day for Independent Creators
We brought together best-selling ACX authors for a one-day summit in Newark, NJ, to share tips and tools for building their brands and growing fanbases.
Some of listening’s biggest sensations have come from independent authors using Audible’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), including romance’s Lauren Blakely and litRPG phenomenon Matt Dinniman. Titles published on ACX make up more than 31 percent of Audible’s catalog, and hours spent listening to ACX titles last year increased by 40 percent. To celebrate and support their work, we gathered many of ACX’s best-selling authors for a one-day summit in our headquarters city of Newark, NJ, to share tips and learn about Audible’s new tools designed to help them build their brands, market their titles, grow engaged fan bases and create premium audio content.
We Celebrated Anniversaries From London to Tokyo
Audible’s CEO Bob Carrigan, Country Manager for Japan Shima Osaka, and CFO and Growth Officer Cynthia Chu celebrate 10 years of Audible’s service for Japanese listeners.
In a spectacular event at a historic Tokyo shrine, Audible came together with publishers, producers, authors and performers to celebrate ten years of our service for Japanese listeners. When we first launched our service for Japan, there wasn’t a word there for “audiobooks.” Since then, Audible membership has grown by double-digit percentages each year, in part by bringing cherished authors like Haruki Murakami to audio for the first time and adapting blockbuster franchises and popular manga. Meanwhile, our employees celebrated ten years of bringing Audible’s service to UK and French listeners with boat parties on the Thames in London and the Seine in Paris. And to mark the five-year anniversary of Audible’s service for listeners in Spain, we honored the incredible year-over-year growth in listening there, and how Audible continues to reflect Spain’s dialectic diversity by producing audio content in Castillian, Galician, Catalan and Basque.
Proud to be Pillars of the Community
Audible’s CEO Bob Carrigan and Global Head of Urban Innovation Aisha Glover cut the ribbon on The Pillars with Newark Mayor Ras A. Baraka and other community stakeholders.
Each year, Audible’s investments and activities in Newark generate nearly $2 billion in economic impact, and 2025 marked the launch of our largest investment yet in our headquarters city. In October, Audible unveiled The Pillars, a 15,000-square-foot innovative retail hub in downtown Newark. The grand opening drew politicians, press, community leaders, business owners and Audible employees, all of whom joined CEO Bob Carrigan, Global Head of Urban Innovation Aisha Glover, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to celebrate this new destination. The three initial retail tenants at The Pillars have received financial support for fit-out costs through our Business Attraction Program, which offers funding, mentorship, networking opportunities and more for retail and startup founders who have historically faced barriers to access.
It was another amazing year for our customers, creators, and community, and for Audible. Happy new year, and we’ll see you in 2026!
