耳朵阅读新时代:经典文学与流行音乐同台竞技 | 经济学人

财富   2024-12-02 13:56   浙江  

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写在前面

1.重点单词

booming - 繁荣的,蓬勃发展的

tier - 等级,层级

jostle - 挤推,竞争

autobiography - 自传

dominant - 主导的,占优势的

footnote - 脚注,次要的注释

enthusiastic - 热情的,积极的

pine - 怀念,渴望

fraction - 小部分,碎片

threshold - 阈值,门槛

boast - 自夸,吹嘘

skew - 偏向,倾斜

fret - 担心,烦恼

drag - 拉走,引走


2.词组

streaming subscriptions - 流媒体订阅

paid tier - 付费等级

music-streaming service - 音乐流媒体服务

sister company - 姐妹公司

trade body - Industry协会

consumer book market - 消费者书籍市场

physical book sale - 实体书销售

related to podcasts - 与播客相关

non-fiction titles - 非虚构书籍

self-improvement titles - 自我提升书籍


3.固定搭配

give access to - 提供访问权限

follow someone's lead - 跟随某人的步伐

add fuel to - 加油于,促进

make up - 构成

bring in - 引入

point to - 指向

switch to - 切换到

drag away - 拉走


4.文章概述:

Spotify和亚马逊等流媒体平台正在引领有声书市场的革命性变化。Spotify为付费用户提供每月15小时免费有声书,亚马逊也跟进提供类似服务。这一举措推动了有声书销量大幅增长,今年销量比去年同期增长27%。有声书现已占美国消费者图书市场的12%,超过电子书。与音乐行业不同,出版商对流媒体模式持积极态度。这一趋势特别有利于某些类型的作者,也吸引了更多年轻男性读者。


5.问题(如何读完文章能很快回答这几个问题,证明我们真正读懂了这篇文章):

Q1: How many hours of free audiobooks does Spotify offer to its paid subscribers?


Q2: How much has audiobook sales increased compared to the same period last year?


Q3: What percentage of the American consumer book market do audiobooks now account for? How does this compare to e-books?

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精读|翻译|词组

Business | Cover artists

Audiobooks are booming, thanks to streaming subscriptions

As Amazon opens access to Audible, expect demand to grow

The most popular musicians on Spotify this week included plenty of familiar names, from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars to Billie Eilish. But also riding high in the streaming platform’s charts were some unexpected stars, including Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien and Boris Johnson.

Spotify, best known as a music streamer, now deals in audio of all kinds. A year ago it began giving customers on its paid tier 15 free hours of audiobooks, equivalent to about a book and a half, per month. The plan has since been rolled out in ten mainly English-speaking markets; rock and pop now jostle for position in the charts alongside fantasy and politics (Mr Johnson’s autobiography embraces both).

This month Amazon announced that it would follow Spotify’s lead and give subscribers to its music-streaming service access to audiobooks, with one free book a month from Audible, its sister company. Amazon’s Music Unlimited has little more than a third as many subscribers as Spotify, which boasts 252m worldwide. But in Audible it has by far the dominant player in audiobooks, accounting for more than half the market.

Chart: The Economist

Amazon’s move promises to add fuel to an audiobook boom. Sales so far this year are 27% higher than in the same period in 2023, according to the Association of American Publishers, a trade body, helped by Spotify’s entry into the market. Once something of a footnote in the publishing world, audiobooks now make up 12% of America’s consumer book market, a bigger share than e-books (see chart).

Streaming is resented by many musicians and record companies, who pine for the days when listeners bought CDs for $15 a pop rather than streaming tracks for a fraction of a cent each. Book publishers are more enthusiastic. Music bosses “would kill for the deal we have”, boasts one, who says a stream on Spotify earns about the same as a physical book sale, once a lowish threshold of listening has been reached. Streaming platforms also bring in new readers by pointing them to books related to podcasts they have enjoyed.

The audiobook boom has given a particular boost to certain types of authors. Spotify says its subscribers are using their free hours to try out less “safe” choices—if they are not gripped after a few minutes, they can switch to a different title at no cost. Audiobook consumers skew young and male, which is reflected in the many non-fiction and self-improvement titles in Spotify’s charts. Publishers have long fretted that the digital world is dragging readers away from books. Now, for once, it might be helping. 


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