Audible (service)

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 in which 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. The service is owned by Audible, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

History

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 the Audible website.
On March 11, 1999, Microsoft invested $11 million into the company. On October 24, 1999, Audible suffered a setback when its CEO, Andrew J. Huffman, died. Development proceeded, however, leading to Audible licensing the ACELP codec for its downloads in 2000, and Amazon bought a 5 percent stake in the then-publicly traded company the same year.
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.
In 2005, 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. In 2006, the company released its A-List collection, which had famous works read by Anne Hathaway and Annette Bening.
File:OneWashingtonParkNewarkRutgersBusinessSchool.JPG|thumb|left|One Washington Park headquarters, in Newark, New Jersey
In 2007, CEO Donald Katz moved the company headquarters with 125 employees from suburban Wayne, New Jersey to Newark. The new headquarters was a high-rise building on One Washington Park.
On January 31, 2008, Amazon announced they would purchase Audible for about $300 million. 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.
In May 2011, the service launched Audiobook Creation Exchange, an online rights marketplace and production platform. 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. 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.
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.
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.
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. The lawsuit was settled in early 2020, with Audible agreeing not to implement the Captions feature without obtaining express permission.
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.

Content and pricing

Audible's content includes more than 200,000 audio programs from audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers. Content includes books of all genres, as well as radio shows, 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 $14.95 and $22.95 USD respectively: Both services allow users to obtain credits which can be used to purchase audio books, while Platinum also included additional incentives such as exclusive discounts. On August 24, 2020, Audible replaced both plans with "Audible Premium Plus", 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.
Once a customer has purchased a title, it remains in that person's library and can be downloaded or streamed at any time. As of April 1, 2019, credits expire one year after issue, and credits prior to this day expire after two years.

Original content

In May 2015, Audible hired Eric Nuzum, formerly VP of programming at NPR, as its SVP of original content development. He resigned in 2018 after the original podcast staff at Audible were laid off.
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. Nuzum compared this strategy to original content created by HBO or Netflix, and stated that the service deliberately avoided use of the word "podcast" as to not alienate listeners unfamiliar with the concept.
Among its original productions are Where Should We Begin?, a relationship podcast with Esther Perel; Sincerely, X, a podcast featuring anonymous TED Talks; Ponzi Supernova, a chronicle of the Madoff investment scandal; The Butterfly Effect, a podcast series by Jon Ronson chronicling the impact of PornHub on internet pornography; and West Cork, a true crime podcast investigating an unsolved 1996 murder in West Cork, Ireland.
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.
The service added a new tier for subscribers to access Audible Originals, announced in fall 2020, called Premium Plus, including over 11,000 titles. 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. More recent releases include Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's memoir and two works by Brown Sugar screenwriter Michael Elliot.
In 2024, Audible announced new audio projects including an audio adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four titled "1984" starring Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott and Tom Hardy. Kerry Washington and Daniel Dae Kim performed main roles in an adaptation of the Broadway play David Henry Hwang's "Yellow Face" exploring themes of cultural appropriation.

Device support

Similarly to other major app-based services in 2025, Audible has broad platform support for major platforms including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Kindle, encompasing various brands of personal computers, mobile phones, and smart devices such as smart TVs, smart speakers, in-car entertainment systems, and accessibility devices.
Linux devices are not supported by Audible. Instead, users can use third-party software designed to play Audible's DRM-encoded file format file format, such as OpenAudible, or break the DRM-encoding and convert the files into an open one, such as MP3.
For iOS devices, users can access Audible on the iPhone 6 and later, iPad mini 4 and later, and all macOS devices running macOS Ventura 13.3 or higher.
The Android app cannot be downloaded directly from Audible, but must be obtained via either Google Play or Galaxy Store. The software is compatible with Android OS 9.0 and above. As of October 2025, the latest version contains code signatures of four tracking companies.
For Windows devices, Audible provides the AudibleSync app, compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11, which also allows for audiobook transfers to MP3 players and accessibility devices.
In addition to mobile and desktop devices, Audible supports Kindle devices, enabling audiobook playback directly on e-readers. Audible is also compatible with various accessibility devices for people with visual impairments or blindness, including Swiss engineering firm Bones AG's Milestone 212 and 312 and EssilorLuxottica Humanware's Victor Reader Stream 2 and 3.

Quality

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

Format name	Bitrate	Sample rate	Bit depth	Channel	MBytes/hour	Container	Quality description
Audible Enhanced Audio *	32 - 128 kbit/s	22.050 - 44.10 kHz		Mono or stereo	28.8	MPEG-4 Part 14	AAC sound
Format 4	32 kbit/s	22.050 kHz	16bit	Mono	14.4	MP3	MP3 sound
Format 3	16 kbit/s	22.050 kHz	16bit	Mono	7.2	Unknown	FM radio sound
Format 2	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. 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.