Audio entertainment and storytelling apps

Stories and sound, told in short episodes and read on the phone

On a bus or a metro, many people have earphones in. Some are listening to a Hindi romance or a thriller, told in episodes of a few minutes each. When an episode ends on a cliffhanger, they pay a few coins in the app to unlock the next one. Stories are moving from books to phones, to be heard rather than read. India has built a large business out of this, with tens of millions of listeners.

Kinds of story

Audiobooks

a book read aloud by a narrator.

Audio series

stories written for listening, told in hundreds or even thousands of short episodes. This is the format that Indian apps have built.

Written stories

apps where anyone can write stories, and anyone can read them, often in Indian languages.

Audio series earn by the episode, audiobooks by subscription, and written stories when some of them are paid.

How the money flows

Paying by the episode

The first episodes are free. After that, listeners buy coins and spend a few to unlock each new episode. A long series can earn more from a loyal listener than a whole book would.

Subscriptions

Listeners pay a monthly fee for a whole library of stories, audiobooks and courses.

Paid writing

On writing platforms, most stories are free. Some are paid, and their writers share in what readers pay.

Paying by the episode: the first episodes are free, and after a cliffhanger the listener spends a few coins to unlock each new one.

Why Indian languages matter. Hundreds of millions of Indians came online on cheap phones, and many prefer to read and listen in their own language. Apps that serve them in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and other languages have found audiences that English services did not reach.

Making the stories. An audio series needs writers, voice artists and sound editors. India's audio apps produce thousands of hours of new episodes each month, so production is a large part of the work.

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

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Audio series, audiobooks and stories

Audio series, audiobooks and stories

Audio series

Pocket FM

founded in Bengaluru, with engineers there, makes long audio series in genres such as romance, thriller and fantasy. Listeners unlock the episodes a few coins at a time. It makes them in Indian languages, and now in English for America, where it has become one of the largest apps for audio entertainment. It uses AI models to help write and voice the stories. Pocket FM has the most job postings in this Market Segment.

Audio by subscription

Kuku FM

with engineers in Bengaluru, streams audio stories, audiobooks and courses in Indian languages, by subscription. (More on it in Market Segment 32.1, OTT and live streaming platforms, in Industry Vertical 32, Streaming and broadcast.)

Audible

Amazon's audiobook company, with engineers in Chennai, builds parts of its apps and its production tools there.

Stories written in Indian languages

Pratilipi

with engineers in Bengaluru, is the platform where millions of people write and read stories in Indian languages. It also has its own audio stories and comics.

Stories for children

Vobble

with engineers in Bengaluru, makes audio stories and games for children, played without a screen. (More on it in Market Segment 42.2, K-12 digital learning, in Industry Vertical 42, Edtech.)

The voice that was never recorded.

Audio stories need narrators. AI models can now voice them, in many languages and styles, at a fraction of the cost and time. India's audio apps produce thousands of hours a month, so voices made by AI change their costs. The open question is whether listeners will accept them for stories they care about.

That is the business of stories and sound: audio series paid for by the episode, audiobooks by subscription, and stories written in Indian languages. Indian apps built the audio-series format, and one now sells it in America.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What news, publishing and social media companies hire for.

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