More than half of Americans aged 18 and older, an estimated 157 million people, have listened to an audiobook, according to the Audio Publishers Association. Back in May, Audible likely added a few more to the fold with its Story House experience, which the Amazon-owned audiobook company proclaimed to be the first ever “bookless bookstore.”
Following a pop-up during the return of BookCon at NYC’s Javits Convention Center in April, the Audible Story House operated for a month (from May 1-May 31) in lower Manhattan and saw more than 7,000 unique visitors come through its free-to-enter doors.
“What I was excited about was the opportunity to learn a lot more about customers and their experiences in that space,” Audible’s global head of brand content marketing James Finn tells Variety. “And oftentimes, I don’t have a sample size like that, and I don’t have a situation where we show up for an entire month in a city like New York and really learn more about our existing customers and new listeners.”
Nick Castle
Located at 260 Bowery, the three-floor audiobook space offered guests the chance to browse titles using physical “Story Tiles” (blocks with RFID chips that made listening to samples via speakers, headphones or through your own phone and earbuds a quick business) throughout seven distinct listening spaces. It housed an immersive listening theater with Dolby Atmos surround sound and a “Listening Bar” with a dedicated “Story Tender” staffer offering up personalized recommendations for sampling. There were creator programming and panels, book clubs, hands-on crafting activities, a pop-up cafe from Brooklyn’s Land to Sea and tons of merch.
