Independent Publishers Group (IPG) has announced a partnership with Beat Technology, a Norway–based provider of white-label apps for audiobooks and e-books.
Publishers who distribute with IPG will now be able to sell e-books and audiobooks directly to customers to read in Beat’s app, Shelf, pending IT development currently underway. The Shelf app will be available in all app stores starting in late February and will offer it's own catalog of titles from participating publishers, which will grow over time.
“Every publisher wants to capture direct-to-consumer sales, but offering e-books and audiobook formats has always been a huge challenge for independent presses. I am thrilled to finally replace our decade-old digital format platform with the best-in-class user experience from Beat Technology,” IPG CEO Joe Matthews said in a statement, adding, “2026 will be the year IPG releases a whole new turn-key solution for publisher shopping carts across all formats.”
Beat offers white-label solutions for publishers around the world. It has produced an app for Adlibris, one of the Nordic region’s largest e-commerce marketplaces for books, and an e-book and audiobook platform for the U.K. wholesaler Gardners. The company offers transparent pricing, taking $.30 cents as a flat fee per transaction.
“As representatives of thousands of independent U.S. publishers, this new IPG group partnership is a proud moment in Beat Technology’s history,” Beat chief strategy officer Nathan Hull said. “We aim to give all those publishers a pain-free, easy and rewarding route to provide their own readers an opportunity to seamlessly read and listen to the books they’ve purchased via both branded and unbranded apps.”
The IPG partnership is Beat’s first major venture with a U.S. publisher. "We have more coming," Hull said, noting that that this is a great way for "smaller publishers who were previously been shut out of the digital marketplace to get into it."
