Princeton University Press and RBmedia are delighted to announce an exclusive licensing agreement to publish over 120 audiobooks in the next three years. The collaboration brings together Princeton University Press’s world-class content and RBmedia’s position as a market leader in scholarly, trade, and reference audiobook publishing.
Delivering popular Princeton University Press titles as audiobooks is an important step in meeting rising consumer demand for this format. According to the Audio Publishers Association, audiobook sales have demonstrated a seven-year trend of double-digit growth. The Association of American Publishers reports that digital audiobook sales grew by 36 percent between mid-2017 and mid-2018. Moreover, according to Edison Research and Triton Digital, in 2019, 50 percent of Americans age twelve and up listened to an audiobook.
“As the world’s largest independent publisher of audiobooks and leader in the educational audio market, RBmedia is building on our established relationship with Princeton University Press to publish new titles in audiobook format, making the content accessible to more people,” said Troy Juliar, Chief Content Officer for RBmedia. “We are exploring additional opportunities with Princeton University Press, with a goal of publishing audio versions of their textbooks in the future.”
Under the agreement, RBmedia will publish selected frontlist titles across an array of subject categories, including history, arts, business, economics, and science, as well as a number of backlist titles that have not previously been released in audio format. RBmedia will publish Princeton University Press titles across its family of imprints, including Recorded Books, HighBridge, and Tantor.
Notable recent and upcoming audiobook releases include
- Becoming George Orwell: Life and Letters, Legend and Legacy by John Rodden
- This Land Is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth by Jedediah Purdy
- Chaucer: A European Life by Marion Turner
- Capitalism without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake
- Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought by Andrew W. Lo
- Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley
“We have a mission to animate conversations and learning the world over with our publications,” said Princeton University Press Director Christie Henry. “This evolving partnership with RBmedia excites us for the chance it offers more Princeton University Press titles to be heard.”
Titles published under the agreement will be available on Audible, iTunes, Google Play, Audiobooks.com, public libraries via RBdigital, and many other sites that provide digital audio.
In addition to licensed audio content, Princeton University Press also publishes audiobooks directly through Princeton Audio, launched in 2018.
Learn more about Princeton University Press audiobooks.