Technology

Majority of Audiobook Listeners Say They Will Only Use Spotify If Authors Get Paid Fairly

Published

2 years ago

June 3, 2024

New U.S. poll from Edison Research finds significant consumer concern around audiobook streaming offerings as well as negative impact on U.S. book sales

NEW YORK, June 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Coalition of Concerned Creators today announced results from a new U.S. audiobook consumer poll conducted by Edison Research, the leading digital audio research firm.

According to the results, audiobook consumers aren’t necessarily familiar with compensation models but are keenly aware that authors have little control over their royalties. When asked who was to blame for authors not being paid fairly for audiobooks, half of all audiobook consumers said the listening services, 40% said the publishers, and the remainder blamed either the authors or consumers.

Additionally, streaming offerings like Spotify are negatively impacting book sales. Among audiobook listeners who use Spotify for audiobooks, 42.3% say they have purchased fewer audiobooks overall since they began listening on Spotify.

When asked about author compensation, 50% of audiobook listeners initially agreed they “will only listen to audiobooks through streaming audio services, such as Spotify or Apple Music, if you know authors are paid fairly for their work.” However, after hearing about concerns over audiobook compensation from streamers like Spotify – those percentages rose even further:

56% of audiobook listeners say authors are being paid “not fairly at all” for audiobooks on these platforms;48.8% of audiobook listeners said these concerns made their opinion of streaming audio services like Spotify less favorable; and51.5% said they will only listen to streaming audio services like Spotify if they know authors are paid fairly for their work.

“Halfway through the survey, respondents were introduced to concerns regarding audiobook compensation. Respondents were told that there were recent claims of streaming audio services not being transparent and consistent in how they pay authors for audiobooks, with some publishers being paid on a per-audiobook basis, while other, smaller publishers and self-published authors being paid based on how much time consumers spend listening. These claims were pulled from sources including extensive media reports on this issue as well as public statements issued by professional author organizations, including the Author’s Guild and The Society of Authors,” said a spokesperson from Edison Research.

The Coalition of Concerned Creators said: “From our work, it continues to be abundantly clear that streaming services like Spotify deprioritize creator compensation in pursuit of corporate development and profit. However, we commissioned this survey to better understand where consumers stand and what behavior they expect of companies they financially support. Authors deserved to be compensated appropriately, and now it’s clear that there is a business case for it too.”

Additional Findings From The Survey:

Consumers are concerned about the possibility of ads in books. 57.7% of audiobook listeners say that advertisements and messages within audiobooks would be “disruptive” or “very disruptive”.Consumers believe upticks in fees or subscription charges should go toward paying authors. 69.3% agreed that if a streaming audio service charges additional fees to listen to audiobooks, those fees should go towards paying the author.Publishers are taking the majority share of the compensation pie, which concerns consumers. Large publishers are perceived by consumers to make out the best in the audiobook industry, with 69% of audiobook consumers saying that large publishers are paid “very” or “somewhat” fairly for audiobooks.

“The poll confirmed that audiobook consumers find concerns over author compensation by audio streamers meaningful in their consumption decisions. After hearing about these concerns, the percentage of audiobook consumers who said authors were paid ‘not fairly at all’ nearly doubled,” said a spokesperson from Edison Research.

How The Consumer Poll Was Conducted
Edison Research conducted an online survey of 1,035 adults aged 18+ who listened to an audiobook in the last year. The study ran from April 26 to May 10, 2024, and the data was weighted to reflect the sex, age, ethnicity, and geography of the audiobook listener market established by Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2024 report.

About the Coalition of Concerned Creators
The Coalition of Concerned Creators is a consortium of writers, musicians, literary agents, and creators concerned about audiobook streaming offerings on author royalties, the way books are written, and the literary industry more broadly. The organization is currently focused on author advocacy efforts and fair compensation as it relates to Spotify’s new audiobook offering.

About Edison Research
Edison Research conducts survey research and provides strategic information in over 50 countries for clients, including AMC Theatres, Amazon, Apple, The Brookings Institute, Facebook, The Gates Foundation, Google, the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, Oracle, Pandora, The Pew Research Center, Samsung, Spotify, and SiriusXM Radio. The national tracking study The Infinite Dial® and the syndicated Share of Ear® are two of their most widely cited studies in the audio space. Edison is also the leading podcast research company in the world and has conducted research for NPR, Slate, ESPN, PodcastOne, WNYC Studios, and many more companies in the podcasting space.

Press Contact: concernedcreators@gmail.com

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SOURCE Coalition of Concerned Creators

Technology

Electrolux Group to end production in Jászberény, Hungary

Published

15 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

STOCKHOLM, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Electrolux Group has decided to end production at the Jászberény, Hungary factory, which manufactures built-in and freestanding refrigeration products. Production is expected to cease by the end of 2026. A restructuring charge of approximately SEK 0.6 billion, of which SEK 0.3 billion is cash related, will be reported as a negative non-recurring item affecting operating income for Region Europe, Middle East & Africa and Asia-Pacific in the second quarter of 2026.

The decision follows a review of the company’s strategy to strengthen cost competitiveness and increase agility through production footprint optimization. This is driven by the current competitive environment, which is impacted by stagnant market demand, price pressure, and increasing constraints on cost competitiveness. The planned site closure will impact approximately 600 employees.

Electrolux Group will fully meet demand for refrigeration products by leveraging existing operations as well as working with external OEM partners. The decision does not affect the local sales and marketing activities managed by the Budapest office.

This is information that AB Electrolux is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, on 22-04-2026 08:30 CET.

For more information:

Ann-Sofi Jönsson, Head of Investor Relations & Sustainability Reporting, +46 73 025 1005

Maria Åkerhielm, Investor Relations Manager, +46 70 796 3856

Henry Sjölin, Investor Relations Manager, +46 76 863 51 85

Electrolux Group Press Hotline, +46 8 657 65 07

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/electrolux-group/r/electrolux-group-to-end-production-in-jaszbereny–hungary,c4337676

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/1853/4337676/4051089.pdf

Press release Hungary April 22 2026 ENG final

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SOURCE Electrolux Group

Technology

MediaGo and hipto Secure Another Les Cas d’Or Gold in Performance Marketing

Published

15 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Recently, MediaGo, a global intelligent advertising platform, and hipto, France’s premier lead generation specialist, won Gold in the “Content and Vertical Industries” category at the prestigious French digital marketing awards, Les Cas d’Or. Recognized for a benchmark performance marketing campaign in the health insurance sector, this award—voted on by over 40 brand marketing directors—serves as further authoritative validation of MediaGo’s technical prowess and service capabilities in the European market.

Following previous wins of Gold in the Native Advertising category and Bronze in the Banking & Insurance Acquisition category, this latest industry honor marks another significant milestone. It underscores that MediaGo’s localized native advertising capabilities, along with its ability to apply deep learning technologies in complex user acquisition scenarios across France and Europe, have earned high acclaim from both the market and industry experts, cementing its position at the forefront of the industry.

The French health insurance market is highly competitive and saturated. Local advertisers have long relied heavily on search and social media channels, resulting in persistently high CPAs and significant traffic inflation. Addressing these industry pain points, MediaGo and hipto collaborated to pioneer a new growth trajectory, establishing the open web as the third core acquisition pillar alongside search and social. By leveraging premium local news and information publishers in France, they seamlessly integrated native ads into media environments, providing the insurance sector with a scalable, replicable growth blueprint to effectively counter traffic inflation.

This award-winning campaign focused on scaling the acquisition of high-intent leads in the insurance sector. It successfully overcame three structural challenges inherent in traditional bidding models: reactive algorithms, high cold-start costs, and the difficulty of balancing scale with efficiency. This achievement further validates MediaGo’s strong operational capabilities and its innovation in native advertising within the French market.

Powered by five deep learning models and the newly upgraded SmartBid 3.0, MediaGo precisely predicts the conversion probability of each ad impression in real time. Paired with hipto’s high-frequency creative iterations (3–5 times per week), MediaGo continuously identifies high-potential audience clusters, further enhancing targeting precision. In addition, SmartBid 3.0’s unique “global learning” mechanism reduced the cold start learning cycle for new campaigns by 50%. This partnership enabled campaigns to achieve stable monetization from day one.

By utilizing SmartBid 3.0’s MaxCV mode, hipto’s campaigns achieved a dual breakthrough in both scale and efficiency. Data shows an immediate 32% uplift in monthly conversion volume and a threefold increase in lead volumes over the longer term, successfully expanding market share within a saturated vertical. Additionally, native ad CTR surpassed the industry benchmark by 53%, demonstrating the platform’s ability to precisely target high-intent users. Notably, even with a 48% increase in mobile budget allocation, CPA decreased by 2.6%, proving that volume scaling and margin preservation can coexist.

Leo Ye, Head of Partnerships at MediaGo, stated: “Winning the Les Cas d’Or Gold for Performance Marketing is a strong endorsement of MediaGo’s technical strength and localized service capabilities. We remain committed to a performance-driven, advertiser-centric approach, deepening our footprint in the French market to help advertisers break through growth bottlenecks in a saturated landscape.”

Looking ahead, MediaGo will continue to deepen its presence in Europe. With deep learning at its core, the platform aims to continuously enhance its native advertising capabilities and localized operations, delivering tangible value to global advertisers and empowering partners to achieve high-quality, sustainable business growth in complex market environments.

About MediaGo

MediaGo is a leading intelligent advertising platform. Based on deep learning algorithms, MediaGo empowers businesses of all scales, creating tangible value for companies. With 12 operational centers worldwide, MediaGo has successfully provided localized and comprehensive business growth services to over 10,000 partners.

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Technology

Dandelion Civilization launches a Human Intelligence Platform to make talent risk visible before it becomes expensive

Published

15 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

New Human Intelligence Platform helps employers assess role fit, team dynamics, and early behavioral risk to avoid costly talent decisions.

AMSTERDAM, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Dandelion Civilization today announced the launch of its Human Intelligence Platform at HR Tech Europe 2026, introducing a new approach to talent management and workforce decision-making, built around behavioral intelligence rather than instinct alone.

The launch addresses a problem many organizations already understand but still struggle to solve. Talent mis-matches are expensive, early misalignment is difficult to correct, and quality of hire remains hard to improve because the real consequences often appear months after a decision is made. Industry estimates frequently place the total cost of hiring a new employee at several times the position’s salary, especially when poor fit leads to replacement, lost productivity, and disruption.

While much of the HR technology market has focused on the hiring stage itself, Dandelion Civilization is taking a different route. The platform is designed to help employers understand how people are likely to perform in real conditions by revealing how they think, act, and interact across hiring, team development, and workforce risk.

At the core of the platform is a behavioral intelligence layer that creates continuous, evolving profiles of individuals and teams. Rather than relying only on CVs, interviews, or static questionnaires, Dandelion Civilization uses behavioral simulations to surface signals around decision making, collaboration, pressure response, and alignment. According to the company’s launch materials, the product is built around three core areas: hiring intelligence, team dynamics, and behavioral risk. It is designed to support decisions before day one, strengthen visibility into how individuals affect team performance, and identify patterns that may point to conflict, disengagement, or misalignment before those issues damage business outcomes.

“We are not creating another assessment tool,” said Dmitry Zaytsev, Founder and CEO of Dandelion Civilization. “We are building the infrastructure for better talent decisions. Companies often discover the true cost of misalignment too late, when trust weakens, performance slips, or the hiring process has to begin again. We want to make those signals visible earlier, when organizations can still act on them.”

The company says the platform is designed to fit into existing workflows without technical friction. Employers send a link, candidates complete an online simulation, and talent teams receive a decision-ready report. The launch deck states that the simulation takes around 20 to 40 minutes, requires no integration, and works in any browser.

While the platform begins with hiring, Dandelion Civilization is positioning the launch as the first step toward a broader layer of human capital intelligence that can support team design, talent development, and earlier visibility into people related risk over time.

About Dandelion Civilization
Dandelion Civilization is building a Human Intelligence Platform that helps organizations understand how people think, act, and interact across the employment lifecycle. Using behavioral simulations and digital profiling, the platform supports hiring, team development, and earlier visibility into workforce risk. Its launch materials describe the product as a system designed to reduce talent blind spots and reveal behavior beyond profiles.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/dandelion-civilization-launches-a-human-intelligence-platform-to-make-talent-risk-visible-before-it-becomes-expensive-302748410.html