A bit about Audiobook apps
Audiobooks are one of a kind in the e-learning space. They are very effective in making the listener understand the book through an audio medium. Most people nowadays have very busy lives and hence they hardly find time for physical books. Audiobooks are more convenient as compared to an actual book because you can literally listen to them anywhere you want.
For example, a lot of us would prefer listening to an audiobook while commuting. The main objective of audiobook applications like Audible is to hook the listener to audiobooks by various means like quality, variety and so on. Audiobook apps like Audible have created a new niche in the application market wherein authors and publishers have one more way of reaching out to book readers.
Why should you create an Audiobook application?
There’s a developing market of Audiobook and podcasting applications. As we mentioned earlier, technology is making it more convenient to absorb knowledge in our fast-paced world. Moreover, publishers and authors have realized this as well, given the falling sales of physical books. Hence, it’s obvious that a new wave of apps for listeners is being developed and as an entrepreneur, it’s the right time to start with this new niche.
Let’s explore how to develop an application like Audible. There are many points that you need to consider before starting and after your app has launched.
Get the right user base
While it sounds amazing to develop an audiobook application, you must work on your marketing skills to attract the right user base. Marketing plays a vital role in attracting the right user base that would be loyal to your audiobook or podcasting application. For example, you can target a specific group of audience who likes science-fiction novels and attract them with many original titles. For podcasting apps, you can market yourself as a platform where users can listen to all kinds of podcasts.
Using Google and Facebook Ads coupled with strong SEO, you can make your platform visible to the people who would genuinely invest their time, money, and efforts to listen to audiobooks on your app. This is a very practical approach to building a loyal and correct user base.
Audible, for example, initially started huge marketing campaigns to attract a good number of people on the app. They started by offering top selling books in each category and let people listen to their heart. Once they had enough people onboard, they started adding more titles, even free ones, in their collection.
As you can see, you have to start with what the audience needs. Every demographic is different. People in the United States love to read Science fiction novels. Hence, you should start by offering discounts on those titles and gradually add more categories.
Make sure that the user stays
While doing audiobook mobile application development, make sure that the app is very easy to use and has the most common features like categories, offline download, searching and analytics. You need to invest enough time and energy in making the user experience as fluid as possible.
Using mobile app analytics tools like Firebase and Mixpanel, you can understand how the users are using your app. For example, they can be searching for the latest audiobook titles or podcasts on your app. Thanks to data analytics, you can understand this quickly and work on it by adding relevant titles.
Push notifications are another way to keep the users coming back to your app. A few examples of events on which you can send notifications are-
- A new title is released of the authors that the user is following
- A new podcast episode is available, if the user has subscribed to the podcast
- Suggesting users audiobooks of other authors in the categories in which they have already made some purchases
You need a strong creator base
No matter how much marketing is done to attain a user base and their attention, the creators are equally essential for an audio-based content application.
You can develop a strong creator base by implementing monetization right from the beginning. You can sign up with audiobook artists and market them along with your mobile application. In fact, many audiobook apps sign exclusive deals with audiobook artists to make sure that they also get the limelight. This creates a buzz among fellow creators and influences them to create for your podcast and audiobook application too.
Here are a few things you can do to make creators happy-
- Organize events with creators as special guests
- Put them in front of your marketing activities, both online and offline
- Keep them in loop with respect to policy changes and new engagements
- Try and foster a community like feeling among creators so that they don’t compete among themselves
Creators must be respected and regular improvement seminars must be held to increase the quality of content on your platform. You will also need to secure licenses for released audiobooks. Have your legal team ready to work on this, as the process is complex and time consuming.
Managing The Platform As A Creator
Now that you have found your target audience, audiobook artists and have acquired some licenses, it’s time to think about the audiobook application as a platform.
You see, while you are looking at it as an audiobook development activity, the app users and the creators are looking at it as a platform because they are going to devote time, money and energy into it.
And to manage a platform, you need to make sure that:
- You have a clear monetization strategy.If it’s a subscription based service, you need to make sure that you abide by Google and Apple’s rules. If you are allowing the users to purchase the audiobook one time, then they would want to have apps for all the platforms that they use: web and mobile both.
- If you are offering advertisements in the app, then make sure that they are not very intrusive, otherwise they will cause a degraded user experience. You can learn from Spotify in this sense because they show ads very in-frequently.
- Create an MVP first and collect feedback. Once you have enough feedback, convert the MVP into a full-fledged app.
- Make sure that you have put data collection events at all the main points in the app. For example, you may want to know which authentication method your users are using the most. You may also want to know how many of your users are returning and staying on the app.
Closing Notes
Development of an Audible like application looks simple initially but it’s not like so. From your users to the creators to handling the legalities, you have to make sure that your platform serves everyone well. In the end, the quality and variety of content will determine the success of your audiobook application.
If you are looking for someone build it for you, write to us on hello@citrusleaf.in and we will make sure that your app development project is successful.