The Ministry of Culture in Spain recently announced an $8.5 million grant program to support development of publishing’s burgeoning audio sector.
That government investment is expected to heat up further an already red-hot market category that includes audiobooks and podcasts.
According to the latest report from dosdoce.com on audio publishing in Spanish-language markets, production and consumption is soaring.
In 2023, the audio industry in Spanish-language markets – Spain, South America, and the US Hispanic market – nearly doubled in size. Once-scarce audio content in Spanish has also snowballed. And like other areas of publishing, artificial intelligence is set to transform the field.
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Spain remains the main place of origin for these programs and services in the Spanish-language audio industry, yet South America and the US Hispanic market do have growing roles. Even in Portuguese-speaking Brazil, Spanish-language audio shows strength.
“Spanish is a global language. After English and Chinese, it’s the most-spoken language worldwide,” explains Javier Celaya, founder of dosdoce.com. “So there’s no surprise that publishing companies as well as the streaming services are looking into Spanish to grow their services and their reach.
In 2023, Celaya tells me, “US publishers in the United produced more than 600 Spanish-language audiobook titles in the US only. So there is a lot of competition for the Spanish market across the different parts of the world.”