Jump to content

Audible (service)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Audible, Inc.
DeveloperAudible, a subsidiary of Amazon
Launch date1995; 29 years ago (1995)
Platform(s)Fire OS, Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, web browser, Wear OS, WatchOS, Windows Phone
Pricing modelVariable subscription and a la carte
Websitewww.audible.com Edit this at Wikidata

Audible is an American online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken word content. This content can be purchased individually or under a subscription model where the user receives "credits" that can be redeemed for content monthly and receive access to a curated on-demand library of content. Audible is the United States' largest audiobook producer and retailer.[1][2] The service is owned by Audible, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.[3][4]

History

[edit]

The company's first product was an eponymous portable media player known as the Audible MobilePlayer; released in 1997, the device contained around four megabytes of on-board flash memory storage, which could hold up to two hours of audio. To use the player, consumers would download an audiobook from Audible website.[5][6]

On March 11, 1999, Microsoft invested $11 million into the company.[7][8] On October 24, 1999, Audible suffered a setback when its CEO, Andrew J. Huffman, died.[9] Development proceeded, however, leading to Audible licensing the ACELP codec for its downloads in 2000,[10] and Amazon bought a 5 percent stake in the then-publicly traded company the same year.[8]

In 2003, Audible reached an agreement with Apple to be the exclusive provider of audiobooks for iTunes Music Store. This agreement ended in 2017 due to antitrust rulings in the European Union.[11]

Two years later, the service released "Audible Air", which allowed users to download audiobooks directly to PDAs and smartphones. Its content would update automatically, downloading chapters as required that would then delete themselves after they had been listened to.[12] In 2006, the company released its A-List collection, which had famous works read by Anne Hathaway and Annette Bening.[8]

One Washington Park headquarters, in Newark, New Jersey[4]

In 2007, CEO Donald Katz moved the company headquarters with 125 employees from suburban Wayne, New Jersey to Newark.[8] The new headquarters was a high-rise building on One Washington Park.[4]

On January 31, 2008, Amazon announced they would purchase Audible for about $300 million.[13] In April of that year, Audible began producing exclusive science fiction and fantasy audiobooks under its "Audible Frontiers" imprint. At launch, 25 titles were released.[14]

In May 2011, the service launched Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), an online rights marketplace and production platform.[15][16][17] The platform was so successful that in 2012, Audible reported it had received more titles from ACX than from its top three audio providers combined.[16] In March 2012, Audible launched the A-List Collection, a series showcasing Hollywood stars including Claire Danes, Colin Firth, Anne Hathaway, Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Diane Keaton, Nicole Kidman, and Kate Winslet performing great works of literature. Firth's performance of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair was named Audiobook of the Year at the Audie Awards in 2013.

The service began offering its narration workshops at acting schools, including Juilliard and Tisch School of the Arts; in 2013, Audible's CEO speculated that the company was the largest single employer of actors in the New York area.[18]

In September 2012, Audible introduced a feature known as "Whispersync for Voice", which allows users to continue audiobooks from where they left off reading them on Amazon Kindle.[19]

The former Second Presbyterian Church in Newark was repurposed as Audible's "Innovation Cathedral".

In 2016, the company announced that it would open a new facility in Newark, New Jersey, the "Innovation Cathedral", in a former Second Presbyterian Church, last used in 1995.[4]

In July 2019, a new feature was announced called Audible Captions, in which machine-generated text would be displayed alongside the audio narration. The company was sued by the Association of American Publishers shortly thereafter for copyright violation.[20][21] The lawsuit was settled in early 2020, with Audible agreeing not to implement the Captions feature without obtaining express permission.[22]

In November 2020, Audible modified its return and exchange policy in response to concerns by authors, who felt that customers were abusing the policy to listen to audiobooks without paying.[23]

Content and pricing

[edit]

Audible's content includes more than 200,000 audio programs from audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers.[24] Content includes books of all genres, as well as radio shows (classic and current), speeches, interviews, stand-up comedy, and audio versions of periodicals such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The service offered two monthly subscription tiers, "Audible Gold" and "Audible Platinum", priced at US$14.95 and $22.95 respectively: Both services allow users to obtain credits which can be used to purchase audio books (one whole credit for Gold, and two whole credits on Platinum), while Platinum also included additional incentives such as exclusive discounts. On August 24, 2020, Audible replaced both plans with "Audible Premium Plus" (a renaming of Gold, though with the Platinum pricing and credits grandfathered for existing subscribers), and introduced a new $7.95 subscription tier known as "Audible Plus." Both tiers include access to a curated on-demand library of audiobooks, podcasts, and other original productions, while the Audible Plus tier does not include credits.[25][26][27]

Once a customer has purchased a title, it remains in that person's library and can be downloaded or streamed at any time.[25][26] As of April 1, 2019, credits expire one year after issue, and credits prior to this day expire after two years.[27]

Original content

[edit]

In May 2015, Audible hired Eric Nuzum, formerly VP of programming at NPR, as its SVP of original content development.[28]

In 2016, the service introduced an on-demand service known as "Audible Channels", which features short-form audio programming from various outlets, including news and other original productions. Access is included as part of Audible's subscription, and also became available to Amazon Prime subscribers.[29] Nuzum compared this strategy to original content created by HBO or Netflix,[30][31] and stated that the service deliberately avoided use of the word "podcast" as to not alienate listeners unfamiliar with the concept.[32][33]

Among its original productions are Where Should We Begin?—a relationship podcast with Esther Perel,[34] Sincerely, X'—a podcast featuring anonymous TED Talks,[35] Ponzi Supernova—a chronicle of the Madoff investment scandal,[36] The Butterfly Effect—a podcast series by Jon Ronson chronicling the impact of PornHub on internet pornography,[37] and West Cork, a true crime podcast investigating an unsolved 1996 murder in West Cork, Ireland.[38]

In August 2018, it was reported that Nuzum was stepping down, and that Amazon had laid off most of the short-form content staff. This move came amid a shift in Audible's original content strategy, including a greater focus on "audiobook-first" deals with writers.[39][40][41]

The service's new strategy for original content was announced in fall 2020 with the debut of a new lower-price tier providing access to "Audible Originals." The new tier, called Premium Plus, provided access at the time of introduction to 11,000 audio titles available only by subscription to Audible. These titles included earlier original material, plus new audio productions featuring such creators as Common, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kate Mara, Harvey Fierstein, Michael Caine and Jesse Eisenberg.[42] More recent releases include Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's memoir [43] and two works by Brown Sugar screenwriter Michael Elliot.[44]

Device support

[edit]

Audible audio files are compatible with hundreds of audio players, PDAs, mobile phones and streaming media devices.[45] Devices that do not have AudibleAir capability (allowing users to download content from their library directly into their devices) require a Windows PC or Macintosh to download the files. Additionally, titles can be played on the PC (using iTunes or AudibleManager). Titles cannot be burned to CD with AudibleManager. According to Audible's website, they can be burned to CD using Apple's iTunes and some versions of Nero. (The DRM generally allows a title to be burned to CD once, although the resulting CDs can be played in any CD player and have no copy prevention.)[45] Currently there is no support for Linux, although AudibleManager is known to work through Wine (though this is not officially supported by Audible).[46][47]

Prospective buyers of media players can check the audible.com "Device Center" [48] to verify whether the device will play .aa files, as well as play them at the desired level of audio fidelity. Audible players are available on Apple iPhones, iPods, Android, and Windows Phone devices.

The Audible App allows for the downloading and playing of audio books purchased via Audible.com and allows the user to store multiple titles for play on mobile devices using the AA file format developed by Audible.[49]

Quality

[edit]

The following qualities have been available from Audible. Currently, only the "Format 4" and "Enhanced" formats are available for download.[50]

Format name Bitrate Sample rate Bit depth Channel MBytes/hour Container Quality description
Audible Enhanced Audio (.aax)* 32 - 128 kbit/s 22.050 - 44.10 kHz Un­known Mono or stereo 28.8 MPEG-4 Part 14 AAC sound
Format 4 (.aa) 32 kbit/s 22.050 kHz 16bit Mono 14.4 MP3 MP3 sound
Format 3 (.aa) 16 kbit/s 22.050 kHz 16bit Mono 7.2 Unknown FM radio sound
Format 2 (.aa) 8 kbit/s 22.050 kHz 16bit Mono 3.7 Unknown AM radio sound
  • AAX files are encrypted M4B's. The audio is encoded in variable quality AAC format. While the vast majority of books are encoded at 64 kbit/s, 22.050 kHz, stereo, some are as low as 32k, mono. Radio plays are often encoded at 128 kbit/s and 44.1 kHz.[citation needed] Additionally, many audiobooks in Germany are encoded at the latter bitrate and are marketed as "AAX+"; however, there is no difference in the actual file format.

Digital rights management

[edit]

Audible's .aa file format encapsulates sound encoded in either MP3 or the ACELP speech codec, but includes unauthorized-playback prevention by means of an Audible username and password, which can be used on up to four computers and three smartphones at a time. Licenses are available for schools and libraries.

Audible's content can only be played on selected mobile devices. Its software does enable users to burn a limited number of CDs for unrestricted playback, resulting in CDs that can be copied or converted to unrestricted digital audio formats.

Because of the CD issue, Audible's use of digital rights management on its .aa format has earned it criticism.[51] While multiple software products are capable of removing the Audible DRM protection by re-encoding in other formats,[52] Audible has been quick to threaten the software makers with lawsuits for discussing or promoting this ability, as happened with River Past Corp and GoldWave Inc.[53] Responses have varied, with River Past removing the capability from their software, and GoldWave retaining the capability, but censoring discussions about the ability in its support forums.[citation needed] But there are still many other software tools from non-US countries which easily bypass the DRM control of Audible by various methods, including sound recording, virtual CD burning, and even using a media plugin library once provided by Audible themselves.[54] After Apple's abandonment of most DRM measures, Amazon's downloads ceasing to use it, Audible's DRM system is one of the few remaining in place.

Many Audible listings displayed to non-U.S. customers are geo-blocked. According to Audible, this is because the publisher who has provided the title does not have the rights to distribute the file in a given region. Logged in are unable to see titles that are unavailable for purchase.[55]

There were hopes[56] that Amazon, after its purchase of Audible, would remove the DRM from its audiobook selection, in keeping with the current trend in the industry. Nevertheless, Audible's products continue to have DRM, similar to the policy of DRM-protecting their Kindle e-books, which have DRM that allows for a finite, yet undisclosed number of downloads at the discretion of the publisher, however Audible titles that are DRM free can be copied to the Kindle and made functional.[57]

Audible is able to offer DRM-free titles for content providers who wish to do so.[58] FFmpeg 2.8.1+ is capable of playing Audible's .aa and .aax file formats natively.[59][60]

Market power

[edit]

Audible operates the Audiobook Creation Exchange, which enables individual authors or publishers to work with professional actors and producers to create audiobooks, which are then distributed to Amazon and iTunes. Currently, the service is available to residents of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland.[61] Audible produces 10,000 titles a year and may be the largest employer of actors in New York City.[62]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Alexandra Alter (August 1, 2013). "The New Explosion in Audio Books". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  2. ^ NJ.com, Karen Yi | NJ Advance Media for (May 21, 2019). "Renovated church is 'incredible,' but we're part of its history, too, activists say". nj. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  3. ^ "Amazon.com Completes Acquisition of Audible". Amazon.com, Inc. March 19, 2008. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d Ivers, Dan (January 17, 2019). "Audiobook giant Audible to expand operation into historic Newark church". NJ.com. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  5. ^ Redburn, Tom (September 23, 1998). "His Dream Is That We'll All Hear Little Voices". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  6. ^ Newton, Casey (December 17, 2014). "Inside the secret lab where Amazon is designing the future of reading". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 22, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  7. ^ "Microsoft, MSFT, Investor Relations, Stock, Stock Split, Stock Price Look up, Investment Calculator". www.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d "Meet Don Katz, the visionary CEO of Audible". December 8, 2013. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  9. ^ "Audible President And Chief Executive Officer Andrew J. Huffman Dies". Press Release. PRNewswire. October 25, 1999. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  10. ^ "Audible Chooses VoiceAge's ACELP.net as Preferred Speech Codec". Voice Age. Archived from the original on December 30, 2006. Retrieved December 17, 2006. Recognition of ACELP.net by the Leading Spoken Audio Service on the Web
  11. ^ "Audible's iTunes exclusivity ends following antitrust pushback in Europe". TechCrunch. January 19, 2017. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  12. ^ Pogue, David (October 13, 2005). "A Marriage of Bookshelf and Phone". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  13. ^ Paul, Franklin (January 31, 2008). "Amazon to buy Audible for $300 million". Reuters. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved July 10, 2021.
  14. ^ "Audible Announces New Imprint and Exclusive Agreements with Orson Scott Card and Other Top Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers". BusinessWire.com. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. April 28, 2008. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2015.
  15. ^ Paul Guliani, Amazon's Audible.com sees ten-fold increase in audiobook production Archived January 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, NY Daily News, January 31, 2013
  16. ^ a b Max Humphreys, Audible's Audiobook Creation Exchange Reports Big Growth In 2012 Archived January 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, NextAdvisor, February 4, 2013
  17. ^ Staff writer, Keeping Up With the New Demand for Audiobooks Archived August 2, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Publishing Trends, August 1, 2011
  18. ^ Actors today just don't read for the part, reading is the part Archived August 19, 2022, at the Wayback Machine New York Times, June 30, 2016
  19. ^ "Kindle And Audible's Whispersync For Voice Review: The Best Of Both Worlds". CINEMABLEND. October 12, 2012. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  20. ^ "American Publishers Sue To Stop 'Audible Captions'". Publishing Perspectives. August 24, 2019. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  21. ^ Lee, Timothy B. (August 24, 2019). "Book publishers sue Audible to stop new speech-to-text feature". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  22. ^ "Copyright: US Publishers Succeed in 'Audible Captions' Case". Publishing Perspectives. February 7, 2020. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
  23. ^ "Audible adjusts terms after row over 'easy exchanges' that cut royalties". The Guardian. November 26, 2020. Archived from the original on February 22, 2023. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  24. ^ "About Audible". about.audible.com. Archived from the original on June 27, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  25. ^ a b Holloway, Daniel (August 24, 2020). "Audible Launches New Unlimited Subscription Tier Audible Plus". Variety. Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  26. ^ a b Carman, Ashley (August 24, 2020). "Audible launches a cheaper subscription plan for access to its exclusive podcasts and audio content". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 28, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  27. ^ a b Liptak, Andrew (April 10, 2019). "Audible will now let you keep your membership credits for a full year". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  28. ^ Sefton, Drue (May 15, 2015). "NPR Programmer Nuzum Moving to Audible to Oversee Original Content". Current. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  29. ^ "Amazon adds another Prime benefit: free podcasts from Audible Channels and free audiobooks". TechCrunch. September 13, 2016. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  30. ^ Johnson, Steve (July 16, 2018). "Audible Tries HBO for Audio with New Channels Service". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  31. ^ Chokshi, Niraj (July 7, 2016). "Amazon's Audible Goes Long on Short Term Audio". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  32. ^ Etherington, Darrell (July 7, 2016). "Audible's new Channels audio content subscription service is a bet on a voice-powered future". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2017.
  33. ^ Gamerman, Ellen (July 7, 2016). "Amazon's Audible Launches On-Demand Audio Service, Channels". WSJ. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  34. ^ Schwartz, Alexandra. "Esther Perel Lets us Listen in On Couple's Secrets". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on December 27, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  35. ^ Leiber, Jessica (August 24, 2016). "TED Talks But Anonymously: Sincerely X is a new podcast meant for secret big ideas". Fast Company. Archived from the original on December 30, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  36. ^ Sturges, Fiona (March 11, 2018). "Podcast: Ponzi Supernova — the electrifying story of Bernie Madoff". Financial Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2022. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  37. ^ "'The Butterfly Effect' explores tech's impact on the porn industry". Engadget. July 17, 2018. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  38. ^ Quah, Nicholas (March 7, 2018). "West Cork Audible Podcast Review". Vulture. Archived from the original on June 4, 2021. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  39. ^ Quah, Nicholas (August 7, 2018). "A big shakeup at Audible has left the audiobook giant's podcast strategy unclear". Nieman Lab Blog. Retrieved December 29, 2018.
  40. ^ Alter, Alexandra (June 2, 2018). "Want to Read Michael Lewis's Next Work? You'll Be Able to Listen to It First". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 7, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  41. ^ Sheehan, Jason (May 31, 2017). "'The Dispatcher' Is A Short Stroll In A Strange Neighborhood". NPR.org. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  42. ^ "Audible Introduces Lower-Priced Subscription Tier". Deadline Hollywood. August 24, 2020. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2021.
  43. ^ "Newark mayor and spoken word artist Ras Baraka's next project? An audio memoir". January 27, 2022. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  44. ^ "Queen Latifah podcast coming to Audible as part of Flavor Unit deal". July 19, 2021. Archived from the original on March 23, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  45. ^ a b How Audible Works, How Audible works at audible.com, April 22, 2007
  46. ^ Audible.com and Linux... Arghh Archived December 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Todd Partridge (Gen2ly), Audible.com and Linux... Arghh., September 21, 2011
  47. ^ [1] Archived December 17, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Wine, WineHQ - AudibleManager, December 17, 2014
  48. ^ "Device Center". Audible.com. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  49. ^ "AA File Extension - What is a .aa file and how do I open it?". fileinfo.com. Archived from the original on May 27, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  50. ^ "Site Maintenance in progress". audible.custhelp.com. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
  51. ^ Why I Won't Be Adding Audible.com to My Xmas Card List Archived January 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog, January 3, 2003
  52. ^ "Remove DRM from Audible's audio books (Removing copy-protection from .AA files) - Audio/video stream recording forums". stream-recorder.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2007. Retrieved December 30, 2007.
  53. ^ "Company Threatens Audio Editing Software Creator April 20, 2004". Chillingeffects.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  54. ^ "Audible.com without DRM". swankandswill.blogspot.com. July 2010. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  55. ^ "Audible.com FAQ". Audible.CustHelp.com. Retrieved June 28, 2012.[permanent dead link‍]
  56. ^ Doctorow, Cory (February 21, 2008). "Random House Audio abandons audiobook DRM". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  57. ^ "Kindle mp3 Audible Hack - Nickinator Nick Jones". Nickinator.info. January 28, 2012. Archived from the original on September 7, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  58. ^ "Audible.com FAQ". Audible.custhelp.com. April 23, 2012. Archived from the original on July 10, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
  59. ^ "FFmpeg Audible AAX". FFmpeg. December 25, 2015. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
  60. ^ "FFmpeg Audible AA". FFmpeg. December 25, 2015. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
  61. ^ "Audiobooks Through ACX". kdp.amazon.com. Archived from the original on August 21, 2023. Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  62. ^ Kaufman, Leslie (June 29, 2013). "Actors Today Don't Just Read for the Part. Reading IS the Part". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 25, 2017. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Audible_(service)&oldid=1258073616"