Introducing the Beststreamer: Mapping Nuances in Digital Book Consumption at Scale

Abstract

This paper investigates consumption patterns in digital subscription-based streaming services for books by means of a large-scale dataset derived from Storytel. The aim is twofold: to empirically discuss how book consumption in the commercial top segment diverges between print books and digital streaming platforms, and to conceptually show the usefulness and considerable possibilities with computational approaches for digital publishing studies and contemporary book history. This is accomplished by introducing the concept of the beststreamer, and the average finishing degree measure. The empirical output shows large differences between print bestsellers and digital beststreamers, both in terms of genre distributions, finished streams, and levels of completion. These results are discussed in relation to factors fostering consumption patterns, such as platform design, pricing models, supply, marketing, customer base, and media-specific features of the audiobook.

Talking About Audio: Analysing Book Industry Trade Talk on Audiobooks and Streaming in Sweden and Norway

“…One of the world's biggest publishers, Penguin Random House, declines to offer their titles to all you can eat streaming services. Furthermore, there is a strong concern that the shift to streaming represents not only a sales shift but that they are disruptive agents that will transform literature and reading in general [10,38,39].…”

Platformization and Publishing: Changes in Literary Publishing

“…35 Van Dijck [13]. 36 Berglund [4], Srnicek [31], Steiner [32]. accelerated sales for the few and fewer opportunities for the many titles, resulting in higher risk to the publishers.…”

“…Efficacy and precision in targeting customers are competitive advantages to the platform businesses. 4 In the literary industry, the ongoing change is manifested in the accelerated rise in the distribution of audiobooks, as demonstrated in statements like 'The fastestgrowing segment in publishing', 5 'Steep rise in Audiobook Sales', 6 and 'Downloaded audio: biggest format jump'. 7 Based on a qualitative interview study of editorial leaders in Norwegian publishing houses, this article explores the influence of platformization on literary publishing, as expressed in the research question: How do streaming services and growth in audiobooks influence literary publishing?…”

Development of Electronic Pocket Books For Immune System Material To Increase Students' Learning Motivation

“…application that is run through a smartphone then the android book must be dominated by attractive colors for students so that students do not tend to be bored and can be interested in reading it and easy to understand. One of the student learning media that implements the development of technology and communication with user interaction that is currently being developed is a digital book (Berglund, 2021). Electronic books are known as the evolution of printed books that we usually read in everyday life.…”