BookBeat partners up with Italy’s largest publisher Mondadori

Italy’s largest publisher, Mondadori, reaches an agreement with BookBeat – one of the leading streaming services for audiobooks in Europe – making over 1.000 additional audiobooks available for streaming.

Only a few months after entering the Italian market, BookBeat has reached agreements with all five major publishers in Italy, which accounts for the majority of the total book market. The latest publisher addition is Mondadori Group, which includes its digital brands such as Mondadori, Einaudi, Rizzoli, Piemme, Sperling & Kupfer and Mondadori Electa. 

“Our long-term ambition is to reach at least 100 000 users in the Italian market. Offering users a large catalogue with titles from the most popular authors plays a big part in reaching that goal. By working with Mondadori, our Italian users will now be able to enjoy books from major authors such as Ammaniti, Bignardi, Borzacchiello, Calvino, Christie, Follett, Gotto, Riordan, Volo and Zafón.”, says William Jakoby, Head of Expansion and Business Development at BookBeat.

“We are glad to partner up with BookBeat, an audiobook and e-book streaming platform with great potential. Together with Mondadori, BookBeat will be able to engage new users and enlarge its digital library. This will be achieved through a wide catalogue of high-profile Italian and international authors. The agreement increases even more in value if connected to the audiobook market growth in the last year”, says Filippo Guglielmone, Chief Operating Officer at Mondadori Libri.

BookBeat wish to set an end to exclusivity agreements.

One of BookBeat’s hopes in the Italian market is to end exclusivity agreements between publishers and streaming platforms, granting both publishers and users an open market, and helping the further development of the Italian audiobook market as a whole.

“Exclusivity between publishers and other services is a practice that over time has fractured the Italian market and prevented it from growing to its full potential. We believe publishers are progressively moving away from it, as they recognize the importance of investing in the digital market. To support the publishers, we will work closely with them, helping distribute and promote their content” says William Jakoby.