Pocket FM: Audio Series

Pocket FM produces audio series, which is a distinct form from both audiobooks and podcasts and deserves distinguishing. An audiobook is one narrator reading a finished novel. A podcast is people talking. An audio series is a story written for audio, performed by voice actors with sound design, and released in episodes that end where you want the next one. It is closer to the radio drama of the twentieth century than to anything else currently popular, and the format has found an enormous audience because it fits how people listen now: while commuting, cooking, walking or unable to look at a screen. The library spans romance, horror, thriller, fantasy and drama, with vampires, wizards and werewolves featuring heavily, which tells you the register accurately. This is popular serialised fiction of the kind that keeps people listening to one more episode, not literary adaptation. Content comes from a large creator community of authors, storytellers and voice artists, and new episodes arrive continually, so a series you follow keeps going. Millions of listeners worldwide use it. For anyone whose commute is long enough to be tedious, a serialised story that ends on a hook is a genuinely different experience from music.