Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the Internet online content consumption group has ushered in an explosive growth, and the number of people listening to books has grown exponentially. According to the analysis data of Analysys, the number of active users in China's audio industry market will reach 800 million in 2021, and the number of users in 2020 will increase. 570 million people.

Visiting bookstores, libraries, audio reading content platforms, and audio reading practitioners, it is indeed obvious that this industry is undergoing a quiet transformation.

　　bookstore

　　Audiobooks have 'sound islands'

　　As soon as you enter the CITIC Bookstore Qihao Store, you will first see the CD-like audiobook "Sound Island" set up in the store. Elite Business School, Moment of History, Deep Thought+, Seeing the Future, Deciphering Life, Five Themes, 120 Classic Books Books are presented to you in sound.

　　In Sound Island, many readers will experience it for themselves.

In this bookstore, paper books and audio reading are seamlessly connected.

Scan the QR code on the audio bookshelf, and you can hear the essence of a book interpreted by professionals. If you need to buy it, you can quickly find the corresponding book in the bookstore.

Audiobooks are produced by CITIC Academy.

Cui Qing, head of the CITIC Academy of CITIC Publishing Group, told reporters that the academy will invite professional broadcasters to process books with audio at any time.

　　It is worth mentioning that in 2021, the listening and payment data of audio products of readers in CITIC Academy will also increase significantly compared with the previous year.

Cui Qing said that the readers of CITIC Academy's audiobooks are mainly middle- and high-end users aged 25 to 50, which is also the backbone of social consumption.

In her opinion, "The epidemic has changed people's way of life. Readers pay attention to social development, health, and actively improve their quality of life. Therefore, the demand for knowledge is gradually increasing. With the reduction of ineffective social interaction and the increase of alone time, users have more Time to read."

　　library

　　Audio reading up 30% year-on-year

　　In the library, scanning the code to listen to the book has become a very natural choice for readers. Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, audio reading has become a reading method that has increased significantly in the library.

　　Go up the stairs of Chaoyang District Library (Jin Song Hall), on the wall in the shape of "black and white piano keys", there is a unique sign, "Human Lu Xun", "A Brief History of the Future", "Rural China" and other 60 books. Under the title of the book, there is a text introduction, as well as a QR code to scan the code to listen to the book. Scan WeChat to enter the Listening Book applet, and the book introduction for about 30 minutes condenses the essence of the book.

　　Li Kai, director of Chaoyang District Library, specifically mentioned that since the outbreak of the epidemic, higher requirements have been placed on the library's reading services, which has led to the continuous innovation of the library, "We need to explore the normalization of epidemic prevention and control. Some contactless service methods that can break the time and geographical constraints, and use it as a supplement to the traditional public library reading service."

　　Chaoyang District Library introduced Himalayan digital resources through government bidding, bringing readers an immersive listening experience.

Up to now, there are more than 50,000 albums on the Himalayan platform connected to the library, with a duration of 2.79 million hours, and the resources are updated with the Himalayan content library.

　　Audio reading at the Capital Library is also booming.

Shoutu now provides audio reading digital resources, mainly including three databases: Yuntu Audio Digital Library, Overdrive and New Oriental Bilingual Reading. The relevant person in charge told reporters that Yuntu audiobooks cover a wide range, covering literature, history, politics, law, and philosophy. There are about 5,700 volumes of content such as , economics, etc. Overdrive and New Oriental Bilingual Reading focus on picture book reading and picture book follow-up.

　　According to the relevant data of the first map, the cumulative usage of the three libraries in 2019 is about 557,000 times, the cumulative usage in 2020 is about 1.234 million times, and the cumulative usage in 2021 is about 1.603 million times, a year-on-year increase of about 29.88%.

　　Content platform

　　Become an important part of IP incubation

　　With the growing demand for audio reading, audio development, joint publishing, audio-visual novels, interactive picture books, short dramas, film and television dramas and other content forms have formed a set of quite mature IP Film and television literature, game animation, etc.) incubation system, audio works have become an important source of content for IP development.

　　Jiang Tianxiang, head of audio content at Migu Digital Media Co., Ltd., introduced that audio works have been continuously upgraded in terms of form, production level and broadcast form.

At the same time, in terms of IP creation, for example, Migu's reading work "Xi Hua Zhi" is based on multi-person audio dramas as the incubation source, and has gradually developed various forms such as comics, paper books, film and television, and audio-visual novels. The number of clicks on the novel exceeds 700 million. , let book fans see the infinite possibilities of IP.

　　New technologies continue to penetrate into audio reading.

The AI ​​listening book launched by Migu Digital Media adopts the latest TTS technology, which can convert text novels into listening books in real time without real recording, realize one-click reading and listening, liberate the eyes of reading users, and integrate reading into more life scenes.

　　The reading trend of the audience has also become clear. According to reports, in terms of listening types, male groups prefer audiobooks of detective reasoning, science fiction and fantasy, while women prefer audiobooks of romance and original film and television dramas.

　　anchor

　　Compress knowledge into sound

　　The epidemic has spawned the transformation of audiobooks, attracting more audiobook producers and streamers to join.

　　Mao Qian has been in the industry for nearly two years. She was originally a dubbing worker. She joined the industry because she wanted to have a side business.

Mao Qian told reporters that she was recording a book read by Migu, and she wanted to "play" multiple roles in the book, ranging from young children to old ladies.

She says it's a joy to use her voice to shape people of all shapes and sizes.

　　The anchor Guan Guan has been in the industry for 9 years, and has 1.15 million fans in Himalaya and 420,000 fans in Lazy Listening.

Guanguan found that since the outbreak of the epidemic, the number of his fans has increased by 20% to 30%.

　　Guan Guan recalled that when he first entered the industry, it took him four or five months to accumulate four or five hundred fans. Since then, he has gone through all kinds of ups and downs and persevered with difficulty. By 2014, his monthly income could reach more than 10,000 yuan, and now , the monthly income hit a record high, the highest can be nearly 100,000 yuan.

Now his understanding of audio-reading works has undergone a qualitative change. "When dealing with each work, we must compress knowledge into sound." He said that he would read a large number of traditional cultural classics, Chinese and foreign literary classics, social science history and other works on weekdays. This has given him a different voice and confidence in his future career path.

Our reporter Lu Yanxia