www.business-review.eu Business Review | September 2021
36 BOOKS
Audiobook platform joins Romania’s digital landscape Echo is the first Romanian platform to offer thousands of audiobooks in Romanian and English, all in one place. The entire user experience is based on simplicity, with easy access through mobile and tablet apps and a monthly subscription model. Business Review talked to Radu Nicolau, the general manager of Echo, about the challenges of launching the platform. By Oana Vasiliu you’ll find on Echo are professionals with years of experience on stage or on the radio. Usually, when preparing for a recording, we first look at what type of voice would best fit that particular book – whether it should be a feminine or masculine voice, a stronger or softer voice, as well as many other factors. A children’s book requires a completely different voice than a thriller, for example. After going through this process, we listen to samples from our portfolio or look for new ones to make sure we deliver the best experience for each audiobook. You will find familiar voices on Echo, including Romanian actor Andi Vasluianu or radio host Bogdan Serban.
Do you have any estimation of today’s local audiobook market? We do not have a clear estimation at this point as this market is only now starting to take
How did you come up with the idea for Echo, considering the fact that several audiobook platforms were already established on the market?
How has the market - both publishing houses and users - responded to your services?
shape. Sure, some publishing houses have
Publishing houses have been our biggest al-
a market you need to have multiple parties
The idea behind the Echo platform is the
lies and we want to thank all of them, whom
engaged, such as dedicated distribution
result of a rather spontaneous discussion
we now call partners and without whom we
services, content producers, etc. All of these
that took place in early 2020 between two
wouldn’t have had all these amazing audio-
have started to happen over the past months
entrepreneurs with editorial and tech back-
books on Echo. There was a joint effort and
and we are confident that the audiobook
grounds. The book market had already started
I think that both sides are now happy to see
market will consolidate soon. And, of course,
its digitalization process and audiobooks
the positive feedback we receive from readers
we hope Echo will be a major player.
were clearly the next big step. With that in
daily. We hope more publishing houses be-
mind and in the pandemic context, which
come our partners so we can grow our library
showed everyone how important it was to be
and make more readers happy together.
Do you believe there is a civic duty inherent in the act of reading?
digitally present, Echo started its journey. The
As for our users, we hope Echo will have a
There are a lot of things that we can call civic
existing audiobook platforms only encour-
definitive role in creating a habit of listening
duty, and a lot of things that one person might
aged us to create Echo because first, we saw
to audiobooks.
consider to be a civic duty while others might
the potential of the audiobook product and
already launched several audiobooks, but I think that in order to define and quantify
not. I think that the act of reading is first a
second, we understood how important it was
How did you choose the narrators?
duty to yourself and it can help you grow,
to have a local platform that was tailor-made
When it comes to audiobooks, the narrator
develop, and gain information. Echo steps in
for Romanian readers.
is extremely important. All the narrators
to facilitate that purpose.
