site.btaAudiobooks' Popularity Is Growing - Head of Bulgarian Book Association

Desislava Aleksieva, Chair of the Board of the Bulgarian Book Association (BBA), discussed in an interview for BTA the trends in consumer behaviour and the way people perceive and treat books. While audiobooks are an extremely popular trend, most Bulgarian readers find traditional books printed on paper essential for their experience, she pointed out. The ratio e-books to paper books in Bulgaria is roughly 1 to 10, according to the BBA.

Audiobooks are extremely popular, as they are a convenient way to perceive content and enrich reading while doing activities that require little attention such as travelling in public transport or doing household chores. Their distribution mechanism, mostly through streaming platforms, provides excellent copyright protection.

In Scandinavian countries audiobooks are now replacing paper and electronic reading. Across Europe, interest in audiobooks is growing. The market is expected to reach a turnover of EUR 1.66 billion this year, according to Statista. Annual growth is forecast at 7.05%, which will see the market grow to EUR 2.18 billion by 2029, with the number of readers rising to 228.7 million. Globally, the largest market remains the US, where turnover is expected to reach USD 4.256 billion (EUR 3.878 billion) in 2025.

In Europe, the growing popularity of audiobooks reflects a changing preference for digital media, especially among younger readers, according to Statista's analysis.

Meanwhile, the e-book market, while maintaining a positive trend both globally and in Europe, is growing more slowly.

Revenues in Europe are expected to hit EUR 2.37 billion in 2025 with an annual growth of 0.63%, bringing the expected market volume to EUR 2.40 billion by 2027. The number of readers is expected to reach 97 million by 2027.

Compared to physical books, e-books are often sold at relatively high prices, and consumers do not receive the expected lower price because of the savings in printing and distribution costs, according to Statista.

The e-book market in Bulgaria is not well developed. People are not used to buying e-books, which is why publishers rarely buy the rights to distribute them.

To better protect intellectual property in e-books, Aleksieva recommended amending the Bulgarian legislation to introduce the so-called internet blocking, i.e., having online distributors being responsible for proving that they have the licence to distribute specific piece of literature, in case a copyright infringement report is filed, as opposed to the current procedure where the copyright owner must prove that their rights have been infringed.