readers or Stephen Fry for those in the U.K. Subscribers account for 90% of the Audible purchases, the company said – and more than half of customers who listened to book one – narrated either by Jim Dale for U.S. “There are very few gaps in our catalogue but none were as significant as the Harry Potter titles,” he said. Until last November, Audible noticed there were more than 500 searches a day for variations of “Potter,” “Rowling,” and the book titles themselves, Gaies said. (Before the launch of Pottermore, the audiobooks also had been available through iTunes). The audiobooks were also more expensive – selling for between $30 and $45, whereas Audible subscribers could get them for just $14.95. Pottermore immerses readers in the wizarding world, but the experience of setting up accounts and making purchases could sometimes be as cumbersome as locating platform 9 and three-quarters. Rowling’s Pottermore store, which handles all digital sales of the series.Īlso see: Amazon’s killer app isn’t Prime. Why the pent up demand? Until November 20th, the digital audiobooks were only available for purchase directly through author J.K. “Other titles have reached a million downloads, but this was certainly the quickest ever to reach the milestone,” said Andy Gaies, Audible’s chief content officer. The figure works out to an average of roughly 8,300 customers a day downloading the audiobooks and popping in their earbuds to magically transform humdrum train commutes into rides aboard the Hogwarts Express, leisurely jogs into a frantic escapes from Dementors, and the muggle chore of sweeping the kitchen floor into the Quidditch World Cup.