Following the notice Barnes & Noble sent to customers about shutting down its downloadable audio section, a spokesperson for the retailer told PW that B&N plans to re-enter the market at some point in the future.

The spokesperson said the decision has no impact on physical audio, and that B&N is "fully committed to the physical audiobook business."

Earlier this week, B&N informed customers that effective June 30 it will "no longer support MP3 Audiobooks." In explaining B&N’s decision, the B&N spokesperson said, "we were not happy with our digital audiobook customer experience, which is why we recently disabled it."

The spokesperson continued: "We have plans to provide customers with a more well integrated digital audio experience at a future date yet to be determined. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and ask for their patience."