RBmedia has entered the German audiobook market using a two-step approach: forming RBmedia Verlag and acquiring German audiobook publisher ABOD to supply titles to the new unit.
Founded in 2012 by Rudi Singer, ABOD produces audio titles from German publishers primarily in the categories of politics and economics. Among the ABOD audiobook titles to be published under the RBmedia Verlag brand are Cycles of Climate Change: How Climate Feedback Loops Can Destroy or Save the World by Greta Thunberg and the Dalai Lama; The Self-Righteous: My Counter-Program for Common Sense and Solidarity by Sahra Wagenknecht; and Put Warm Clothes On, It’s Going to Be Hot: Understand Climate Change and Learn from the Crisis for Tomorrow’s World by Sven Plöger and Eckart von Hirschhausen.
Singer noted that as part of RBmedia, ABOD's titles will now be sold around the German-speaking world. ABOD publishes audiobooks under the ABOD and Hörbuch München imprints, which are produced in its Munich studios. The company produces both physical audiobooks for the book trade and digital editions that are sold through 70 digital retailers.
“We’ve been tracking the German-language digital audiobook market for some time and have seen consistent, sizeable growth,” Miles Stevens-Hoare, general manager of RBmedia international, said in a statement. “We believe it represents a long-term growth opportunity for us.”
RBmedia Verlag joins the U.K.-based W. F. Howes and Australia's Wavesound as RBmedia international operations.
