A market that is all ears

Audio is booming all around the world. Giants like Amazon (with its Audible service) or Spotify (which offers more and more podcasts), are quenching consumers' thirst for audio content. With a small population, the Luxembourgish market tries to keep its head above water. While audiobooks for adults are struggling to make a place for themselves, children's audiobooks in Luxembourgish are still in high demand.

Having a leading position in supermarkets and bookstores, these CDs of children's books can be played in the car or in the bedroom as they fall asleep. Songs or stories that little ones can listen to over and over again without getting tired. There are only a handful of players in Luxembourg producing this content, which is popular with parents. "Children's audiobooks in Luxembourgish are in great demand, songs, stories, even on CD, but the offer doesn't tend to be renewed as it used to be. It's a real shame, especially for schools that want to promote the Luxembourgish language, " says Anne Diderich, president of the Luxembourg Federation of Booksellers and owner of the Diderich bookshop in Esch. Robi Arend, a musician with a half-time teaching job, produced a few children's audiobooks in the days of CDs: "We used to produce our own CDs and sell them through a distributor in supermarkets, gas stations and record stores. But with the slow disappearance of the CD medium, the Luxembourgish language market is not profitable enough for the streaming platforms: "They don't offer enough margin for the artists, I never did it, but you need a lot of downloads to make it profitable, and the Luxembourgish market is too small for that".