An in-depth report by Nielsen in December 2016 estimated the market was worth around £91m spent on 10.9 million units in 2015, of which 60% were downloads. The store is launching at a time that audiobook sales are rapidly growing. Popular titles already available include Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff (Little, Brown) priced at £14.99, 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B Peterson (Penguin) priced at £7.99 and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (Transworld) priced at £1.99. The service is launching initially in 45 countries, including the US, UK and Australia, and in nine languages. Users are also able to listen to audiobooks hands free with the Google Assistant on phones or speakers including Google Home. As an introductory offer, Google is offering customers 50% off the price of their first audiobook. In contrast with Amazon's audiobook service Audible, Google Play customers are able to purchase audiobooks without a subscription. Google Play has launched a dedicated audiobook store to take advantage of the recent growth in downloads.

Google play audiobook