Meet the Community: Sounded

1 What's your company called?

We are Sounded Limited, and also known as Sounded.com. Our head office is in the Isle of Man. We launched our audiobook production platform and online audiobook store at the 2023 London Book Fair.

2 What is your background and how did you get into publishing?

Our founders are Jason Kelly, an IP and technology lawyer, and David Brown, a software developer. Working together on something completely different around 18 months ago, David’s father, a self-published author, asked about ways to turn his books into audiobooks and sell them. It became clear that it wasn’t easy, with multiple end-points, long studio production, the time-consuming process of finding a narrator and the variety of pricing options. Coupled with listing books on platforms and only receiving 40% return on an exclusive basis, we felt we could offer an alternative.

3 What services or products do you offer?

We have two key product offerings: our production platform for self-published authors and small to medium publishers, and our B2C audiobook store.

Platform

Our real-time audiobook production platform is available on a self-service basis for authors, and also on a managed service basis for publishers. Production is carried out using proprietary AutoAudio™ technology from our intuitive user interface. During the process, authors and publishers retain full editorial control and can select from more than 800 narrating voices, across 60 languages and 162 dialects. We also work directly with leading audiobook voice artists to create the best possible voice options. Authors and publishers can work with them direct too, using exclusive Digital Replicas which have been licensed with consent from the voice artists for audiobook production via Sounded.com. Narrators receive a fixed fee or commission for use of the Digital Replicas.

Depending on book length, the whole process using Digital Replicas can be as little as ten minutes. Once an audiobook has been created, authors or publishers can list it for sale via Sounded.com with distribution via Sounded apps and other channels. They have full control of pricing and the regions it is available.

Audiobook store

Audiobooks produced by Sounded are made available for purchase via our apps and other channels. We also list other third-party studio narrated audiobooks, and have more than 250,000 audiobooks coming to our apps for sale on an a la carte purchase model in 2024. Books are available in multiple languages and our mobile apps are accessible globally and customised to local languages.

4 How can you help IPG members?

We can help members produce audiobooks for new works or back catalogues at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time it typically takes to bring them to market. We ensure those involved in the creative process, including voice artists, receive payments for their work.

We also offer an immediate distribution outlet via Sounded.com and our partners. We’re growing our distribution channels, but with some of the highest royalty rates in the industry we offer a different model to other audiobook apps. Our focus is the author, publisher and end-consumer, ensuring we have a great product for them.

For academic publishing houses, we are uniquely placed to help quickly extract the value from digital rights held. We would welcome conversations with academic publishers around titles in back catalogues or on current curricula, and can help ensure their content can be accessed and processed in audio format.

5 What do you enjoy about working in publishing?

We’re new to the sector and have enjoyed meeting some amazing people, including publishers, authors and voice artists. The reception we’ve had since our launch at the 2023 London Book Fair has been humbling. We put creatives at the heart of what we do and will always respect their IP rights, working alongside them to protect and enforce rights where necessary.

No day has been the same for us since our launch, whether it’s discussing audiobook production times, meeting with voice artists, discussing rights, chatting to small publishing houses about the books they hold and how we can help them or attending and speaking at industry events on disruption in the audiobook market.

6 What do you think is the single biggest opportunity and the single biggest threat for independent publishers right now?

The biggest opportunity is the rise of tools for digital publishing, as well as self-publishing platforms. Leveraging these tools can help publishers reach a wider audience globally, without the need for traditional distribution channels. Being more agile with IP rights, independent publishers have more and more opportunities to get content into new formats and platforms and reach new audiences.

A key threat at the moment is the difficult economic climate, which is impacting sales in print formats. Coupled with this is the difficulty of accessing new audiences because of saturation, which makes discoverability hard. High quality works can be lost in the volume of content available, particularly when it comes to e-pub formats and audiobooks, so listing on platforms representing creatives will become more important.

7 What do you want to get out of belonging to the IPG?

It’s personally important for our founders to make books accessible through audio, using technology in a responsible, ethical and responsible manner. We’re looking forward to being part of the community of independent publishers and working alongside authors and publishers to extract commercial value from the rights they hold and bring works to life in audio format—including in the academic arena, which is under-represented in audio at present. We’re looking forward to networking opportunities with peers at IPG conferences in 2024.

For more information about Sounded’s services, visit https://authors.sounded.com or www.sounded.com, and email [email protected] and [email protected].