Did you listen to the book today?

"South" magazine all-media reporter | Li Mengxing

The way of reading is changing, but the people's continuous exploration of the world, life, and self, and the pursuit of a better spiritual life, are eternal

Mobile media has greatly changed people's lifestyles, and has also brought new trends and ecology to reading. In recent years, reading has gone from mobile fragmentation to e-books, giving rise to the "listener" group.

On April 23, 2021, the 18th National Reading Survey was released. The data shows that the scale of audio reading among adult citizens continues to expand, and more than 30% of Chinese adults will have the habit of listening to books in 2020.

So, has "listening to books" reading changed the reading ecology of citizens? Are you also one of the "book listeners"?

"Retro" fashion?

In the new century, the popularity of mobile Internet has allowed a variety of video programs to occupy people's attention. Nowadays, like the retro trend of clothing style, various APPS and mini programs have converted lead-printed Chinese characters into sounds, prompting "listening to books" to become popular in recent years, giving birth to the "listeners" group of "book listeners" in various scenes such as cars, subways, and running.

A day for a veteran book listener often starts like this: Put on headphones, open WeChat to read books, and see how your friends rank themselves. On the way to the commute, do not delay to continue listening. The sound in the ears fluctuated, and the fireworks of the day began. Why is listening to books popular at the moment? The answer is hidden in the traffic ciphers of the times. In the era of mobile Internet, people's original lifestyles have undergone different degrees of reconstruction. As the pace of life and work becomes faster and faster, especially when the phenomenon of "inner volume" in the workplace becomes more and more common, people's subjective willingness to obtain knowledge and information is also becoming stronger. Therefore, using fragmented time to improve their professional quality and knowledge level has become an important choice for people to improve their learning efficiency. And "listening to books" is favored for its unique way of freeing both eyes and hands and reading with "one heart and two uses": it is always there without considering the scene; it can be enjoyed alone without worrying about others.

"'Listening to books' has always been there, is a way for people to obtain knowledge and the joy of life, in ancient times, there were storytellers in the streets and alleys, teahouses and pubs, and the audience at that time was actually listening to books." Similarly, there are local operas, radio listening to books, etc. It's just that the times are different now, and the listening tools have become mobile communication devices. So listening to books is not a newcomer, but a way of acquiring knowledge that has always existed. Gao Gao, general manager of the Beijing company of Guangdong People's Publishing House, said to the reporter of "South" magazine.

At the same time, as a convenient way of learning, listening to books bypasses the barrier of literacy, and listeners can even "read" without literacy. This is undoubtedly an excellent pastime and a new way to learn new knowledge for the "one old" who have a heavy burden of eyes and the "one small" with limited literacy. Now there are many mobile applications and mini programs that can listen to books, which have the characteristics of vast digital resources, simple operation, and fast update speed.

On March 28, 2019, the Guangdong Provincial Regulations on the Promotion of Reading for All (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which aims to protect citizens' basic reading rights, was promulgated. So far, Guangdong Reading for All has always paid attention to the impact of new technologies and new media on people's reading styles, and has accelerated the construction of a new reading pattern for the whole people that adapts to the change of reading habits brought about by the change of book carriers in multiple dimensions.

During the interview, the reporter found that all localities in Guangdong conscientiously implemented the requirements of "promoting the use of digital libraries, self-service borrowing machines, electronic newspaper screens and other information facilities and equipment to enrich the content of digital reading services" put forward in the "Regulations", and accelerated the upgrading of digital reading facilities in reading places such as libraries and rural bookstores. Statistics show that most of the public libraries at the municipal level in Guangdong Province have built online digital reading platforms, including functions such as reading, listening to books, videos, periodicals, etc., with "intensive reading", "personalization" and "intelligence" as the main features, integrating massive digital resources such as electronic books, electronic journals, courses and audio and video resources; at the same time, they also access external digital reading platforms, such as reading associations, superstar reading, new language listening books, etc., to meet readers' demand for online reading space.

Auditory scramble

The most important link in the new trend of "listening to books" is the production of high-quality audiobook works. Turning good works into good sounds, the production of high-quality audiobook works is taking place in an auditory battle that can change the reading pattern of the whole people. In recent years, many domestic publishing houses and cultural companies have set up sound business departments, all of which have looked at the huge sound blue ocean at present.

The 18th National Reading Survey found that the proportion of citizens who chose the "mobile audio APP platform" to listen to books was higher, 17.5%; 10.8% chose to listen to books through "WeChat public accounts or small programs"; 10.4% chose to listen to books through "smart speakers"; 8.8% and 5.5% chose to listen to books through "radio" and "audio readers or voice reading machines", respectively.

It can be seen that the competition between various audio APP platforms is fierce, and the hearing market is increasingly valued by practitioners, and their respective professional fields are differentiated according to the characteristics of the audience. Among them, it is crucial to accurately and deeply grasp the user's preferences for audiobook works.

As a major province of audio consumption, Guangdong has the habit of listening to audio programs and audio books, and emotional works, historical works, personal growth language learning, and classic masterpieces are all popular content for users. As a sound interactive platform born and grown up in the Greater Bay Area, Litchi APP under Litchi Group has been striving for young user groups and building a high-quality podcast platform.

In the interview, the relevant person in charge of the Litchi APP introduced to the "South" magazine that some podcast products with light knowledge on the Litchi APP platform are becoming more and more popular with young people, and users are particularly interested in products and podcasts that are quite different from their daily lives, can open their own cognitive situation, and obtain new knowledge.

Looking at the national market, Reading Group also entered the field of audio product publishing earlier. "Audio content adaptation cycle is short, the cost is low, and the audience is wide, we believe that audio content is the only way to adapt all the online content in batches." In the view of the person in charge of the relevant business of Reading Group, from the early stage and the platform to design a charging model that fits with the network text, the contract anchor model, and then to the start-up Period of Himalaya, Lazy Listening To book investment strategic cooperation, the current sound market is hot to prove that the original choice is correct and timely.

The book listening report released by the Himalaya platform on the 2021 Reading Day revealed such a new phenomenon: audio dramas have quickly gained the love of young users with the characteristics of high efficiency, strong rendering, large imagination space, short production cycle, etc., and have become the "new favorite" in their headphones, and high-quality audio dramas have become the evolution direction of audiobooks. At the same time, in the fields of history, sinology, traditional art, music, IP derivation and other fields, the innovative content of the national style presented through cross-border cooperation and interesting interpretation has also begun to emerge, and traditional culture can be spread through the circle with the help of innovative audio interpretation.

The sound is linear, but the content is massive. Listening to books is no longer as simple as the original work and text. Under the background of refinement and specialization of market division, the production of the auditory market is gradually moving towards autonomy and maturity.

Sink into the midst of the common people

Some works present and vividly publicize Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, some works strengthen cultural self-confidence, inherit and carry forward China's excellent traditional culture, and some works focus on improving the cultural literacy and scientific quality of the people... In order to further promote the reading work of the whole people, the State Press and Publication Administration has organized the implementation of the audiobook quality publishing project since 2018. The data shows that since the implementation of the project, a total of 112 audiobooks have been selected, which has played a positive demonstration role in guiding the high-quality development of the audio reading industry.

Taking Guangdong People's Publishing House as an example, its "Hero Hymn: Juvenile Recitation Edition" was positioned as a multi-functional paper book + audiobook from the beginning of planning, and invited famous editors-in-chief, professional recitation guides and winners of juvenile recitation competitions to record recitation audio. The QR code in the book allows readers to enter different social platforms according to region or function classification to communicate and interact, creating an atmosphere of online co-reading.

"At the moment, these groups are still relatively active, and readers are really connected because of the book. Audiobook masterpieces should sink to the middle of the people, let the masses like it, and let the classics be passed down from generation to generation, which is the original intention and significance of creating audiobook masterpieces. Gao Gao said.

The development of the Internet has promoted the prosperity of the online literature market, making online literature a vigorous cultural industry, and then spawning the IP fever of online literature and competing for the copyright of high-quality content. The fundamental reason for the adaptation of online literature into audiobooks, film and television dramas, etc. is market demand. Many platforms have invested a lot of manpower and material costs, and signed well-known broadcasters to create high-quality content, which has gained considerable clicks and topic popularity. Online literature has gained huge benefits through digital publishing, paid online reading, etc., and the filmization and sound of the text have further released its value.

On April 7, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "2021 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Internet Literature". The report shows that today, online literature is an important part of reading for all, occupying an absolute advantage in the literary reading and digital reading market, and with its influence on Generation Z, it profoundly affects the face and future of reading for all. With the high-quality, mainstreaming and trend of online literature turning explicit, reading online literature is no longer just a pastime after tea and dinner, but gradually becomes the entrance to the knowledge learning of Generation Z.

"In the past, everyone only paid attention to whether it was filmed and gamified, but in recent years, we have gradually participated in the production, operation and publicity of content, and the authors of online texts have also begun to pay attention to their own content being sounded." In particular, through cooperation with Tencent Music Group, Himalaya and other platforms, we have achieved the goal of mass production of audio content, with nearly 10,000 copies of content invested in the audio market every year, and we have found that online content has also become one of the most profitable categories in the audio market. The relevant person in charge of the Reading Group said.

From seeing and listening, from the eyes to the ears, the way of reading is changing, but the people's continuous exploration of the world, life, and self, and the pursuit of a beautiful spiritual life, are eternal. Either way of reading becomes mainstream, it speaks to the fact that reading is a happy thing.

From a reader to a listener

This article is responsible for editing 丨 Jiang Yu

Co-ordinator 丨 Wang Hongwang Lin Ruochuan

Editor 丨 Lu Zhike Chen Bingqing

Proofreading 丨 Hua Chengmin

Source 丨Nanfang Magazine, No. 8, 2022