About a month ago, I came across this article about Spotify. Basically, the article talks about Spotify getting into audiobooks and eventually disrupting the industry with its subscription model. Roughly a week later, Amazon announced Audible Plus – an all-you-can-listen-to subscription service for audiobooks. It’s slated to cost $7.95 per month, although existing Audible subscribers will have the service included in their membership at no additional charge.
Now, the timing of Amazon’s announcement – right on the heels of the Spotify article – could be entirely coincidental. Frankly speaking, however, I couldn’t help thinking that it seemed a bit like a counterpunch. In essence, there’s a lot of chatter out there about alternatives to Audible, and it’s fairly constant. (For instance, I hear something almost daily about how other audiobook distributors can get your titles into libraries, allow authors to set their own prices, etc.) It seemed like only a matter of time before Audible struck back, so to speak.
That said, the announcement may not be as momentous as it appears at first blush. For instance, just looking at the numbers, there are roughly 11,000 titles included in Audible Plus. Sounds like a lot – until you consider the fact that Audible has over 500,000 titles in its catalog. In other words, only about 2% of audiobooks on Audible are included in Audible Plus. Clearly, they’re going to have to grow the service in terms of content, which means getting more authors to participate. Needless to say, as an author who creates audio versions of almost everything, this is the part I find most interesting.
Not everyone may be aware of it, but Audible actually already has a subscription service called Audible Escape. It’s for romance, and initially made it’s debut several years ago as the Audible Romance Package. Thinking it would be an audio version of Kindle Unlimited, many authors jumped at the opportunity to put their titles in the program. (Whereas KU pays authors base on pages read, the audio service pays based on minutes listened to.) However, the launch of the Audible Romance package turned out to be a disaster, mostly because the payout rate was far lower than anyone could possibly have imagined: $0.0009556 per minute. At that rate, a 10-hour audiobook that was listened to in its entirety would earn the author 57 cents. As you might imagine, most authors found those numbers completely unacceptable. (To their credit, Audible did go back and offer additional compensation for participating authors.)
Fast-forward to the present, and the presumption is that [some] authors will, at some point, be offered an opportunity to put their titles in Audible Plus. However, with the memory of the Audible Romance Package still fresh in many minds, there’s a question of what compensatory arrangement would serve as an acceptable enticement. Basically, I think authors are going to be wary of putting their titles into the program if the payout is once again a black box that provides no indication of what compensation might be. In short, there’s a need for more transparency in that regard, and there’s a good chance that it might be forthcoming. Why? Because with only 2% of Audible’s titles in the program, there’s an argument that a lot more content is needed to make Audible Plus a success.
Content, of course, comes from content creators. More to the point, however, is something Microsoft founder Bill Gates said back in 1996: Content is King.
It was true when he said it almost a quarter-century ago. It’s still true today. Moreover, it’s a maxim that is particularly relevant and applicable when it comes to entertainment.
Basically, there’s a reason why streaming services are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to content creators. There’s a reason why HBO lost 16% of its subscribers after the final season of Games of Thrones – not to mention 22% after Season 5 and 40% after season 6. (The lone bright spot was apparently the aftermath of Season 7, when they only lost 7%.)
In essence, it’s all about the content. It’s the content that will draw people in. It’s the content that will make them stick around. Content is King. And when it’s gone, so are they.
Likewise, for Audible Plus. I don’t know that 2% of their catalog isn’t enough to make the venture a success, but it seems unlikely. My guess is that they’re going to need far more content than what they currently have. Truth be told, though, there are lots of places to get it – e.g., they could commission a bunch of Audible Originals. (It would probably cost them an arm and a leg, but maybe they don’t mind spending that.) Frankly speaking, however, the low-hanging fruit is obviously those authors who already have content on the site. Audible just needs to avoid making the same mistake it made with the romance package in order to bring them into the fold. And they also need to keep one simple truism in mind:
Content is King.
As a writer in the process of producing audio versions of my books, I’m watching developments with interest. Thanks for the background details about Audible Escape, most of which I didn’t know.