Perhaps the single biggest problem for publishers in the digital age is discovery.
In a traditional bricks & mortar bookstore a booklover can, once in the store, gaze around and simultaneously see literally thousands of books across hundreds of genres and categories.
The Top 100 bestsellers might be displayed face-out on a stand and every single title is simultaneously visible.
The booklover can turn and see thousands more books, and skip from section to section in a few steps, selecting one or several titles simultaneously to compare, set aside, and choose later to buy or return to the shelf.
The shelves are of course finite, and the selection can never begin match the variety of what’s on offer on our smartphone from a digital book store.
But the small screen can at best show a handful of titles at a time, and meaningfully only one. We can bookmark a window to return to later, but the first book is lost from view as we move to the next, and even on a laptop screen we’re likely to be able to see only the top ten or so of that Top 100.
Digital makes it easy to discover what is popular – often helped by algorithms which try to make our choice for us according to what the site owner would like to sell – but for real discovery we rely on the media, on social media, and word of mouth (itself usually driven by social media).
All of which means discoverability has to be proactive and wide.
And all the more so for audio.
Storytel understands that, and this week announced a new partnership with Stockholm-based Clipsource, aiming to boost the discoverability of Storytel titles with a new Media Centre, for now aimed at the Swedish market.
Clipsource, founded in 2010, is at the heart of media discoverability in Sweden and a logical choice for Storytel to partner with.
Clipsource, explains the press release, supplies,
digital media centres to television, film and book companies, with customers such as Discovery, Warner, Sony and HBO. As marketing and communication become more digital, the need to publish rich media increases. The more audio, video, images and metadata that is offered for each title, the easier it is for consumers to find and understand the content. And with regards to journalists and influencers: providing easy access to pre-premier samples and screeners is necessary for the reviewing process.
Clipsource are experts in automating the collection and distribution of media and metadata. By implementing a Media Centre from Clipsource, communications and marketing departments can reduce time wasted on logistics and focus on activities that really create value.
For Storytel, Dan Panas, Head of Communications, said:
Audiobooks make stories accessible to a fast-growing and passionate audience – anywhere and anytime. We hope and believe that the media centre that Clipsource built for Storytel will provide the Swedish editors with the best seat for covering the fast development of streamed storytelling. The media centre will be an integral part of our media strategy in Sweden.
Dan Willstrand, CEO of Clipsource, explained,
The audiobook industry has in many respects become more like the TV industry. They both launch new stories at a high rate, publishers become more and more audiovisual, and everyone is moving towards subscription models. We really look forward to helping Storytel on their continued journey.
Clipsource, notes the press release,
is used by local and international media companies throughout Europe. This means that the entire industry can take advantage of the economies of scale that arise. Instead of each company investing in its own platforms, they pay a monthly fee to use a market-leading service, under their own brand, that is continuously upgraded to meet new technical and user needs.
The new Media Centre (in Swedish) can be found here.
Other recent TNPS coverage of Storytel:
