As it is with most parts of the world, book lovers in Saudi Arabia too have begun to appreciate all that audiobooks have come to offer. While the segment is still to reach the level of maturity as it is in the west, the good thing is that there are many who have come to enjoy the specific format and have adopted the same in their lifestyles.

However, as Arab News stated, many have expressed displeasure over the lack of enough audiobook titles in the native language. If that is not all, even the few titles available suffer from issues like the quality of narration being not up to the mark. Many have also complained of there being errors in pronunciation that negatively impact the listening pleasure. Some also said they would love to have the option to choose the narrator of their choice.

Most of the people that Arab News spoke however said they love listening to audiobook titles in English which is proof enough of their being a strong market for the book format. The arrival of the biggies in the business like Storytel has also led things to improve a bit. While more quality audiobook titles have begun to be available, there is still a lot more needed for the segment to take off in a big way.

Also, apart from Storytel, another source of quality audiobooks that the Arabs can look forward to includes Dhad which happens to be the Arabic version of Audible. Dhad is owned by the young Saudi woman, Manar Saud Al-Omayri who said she is committed to bringing about a change in the manner audiobook have evolved in the region by making available more high quality audiobooks in the future. This, she believes, will help make the Arabic reading community evolve further while also making the audiobook format popular in the middle east kingdom.

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