At Obergatt in Switzerland’s Canton Zurich, June 16. Image – Getty iStockphoto: Michael Derrer Fuchs
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Deal Expected To Close in the Third Quarter
The US-based Dreamscape Media—which as you’ll recall announced a partnership in May with the United Kingdom’s audiobook platform Sounded Limited—in in a definitive agreement to be acquired by RBMedia.
RBMedia is also based in the States, in Landover, Maryland. The “RB” in its name is said to come from the original company, Recorded Books, created in 1978.
Dreamscape comprises both Dreamscape Publishing—which acquires, produces, and distributes audiobooks in some 60 countries— and Dreamscape Select, which is a vendor aimed at self-publishing authors.
Michael Paull
In a statement on the news of Dreamscape being acquired, RBMedia CEO Michael Paull is quoted, saying, “The acquisition of Dreamscape will give RBmedia additional depth in key genres and enable us to serve a broader set of authors and publishers.
“As one of RBmedia’s core audio publishing groups going forward, Dreamscape will allow us to provide more high-quality titles to our distribution partners and listeners worldwide. We look forward to working with the Dreamscape team to take our combined publishing business to the next level.
Sean McManus
Sean McManus, president of the audiobook publisher Dreamscape, says, “The RBmedia and Dreamscape audiobook publishing businesses are highly complementary.
“We’re excited about the potential of bringing together RBmedia’s significant capital and capabilities with Dreamscape’s award-winning catalog and ongoing publishing.”
In quick notes supplied with this announcement, we have an update on Dreamscape, founded in 2010, as having a catalogue of more than 7,000 audiobooks now, and close to 1,000 new titles releasing each year “in a variety of genres including mystery-thriller, romance, and children’s audiobooks.”
Earlier this year, Dreamscape announced exclusive deals for the audio rights to 13 of John le Carré’s books and five titles from 2023 Nobel Prize laureate Jon Fosse. In May, Dreamscape also released the fourth title in the “Kingdom of Lies” series by Stacia Stark and the company’s authors include Jeneva Rose, whose suspense novel The Perfect Marriage reportedly has sold more than 350,000 audiobooks, and Lisa Jewell, who has 15 titles with the company and has reportedly sold nearly 2 million audiobooks.
The RBMedia-Dreamscape acquisition is expected to close in Q3 of this year. Terms of this agreement are not being made public.
More from Publishing Perspectives on audiobooks is here, more on digital publishing is here, more on the United Kingdom market is here, and more on the united States market is here.