Amazon Wants to Extend Its Dominance in Audiobooks
wsj.com
wsj.com
1) get rid of the subscription service, I have avoided purchases altogether because the book was cheaper than my credit was costing me, but couldn’t bring myself to give you more money when I have a bunch of credits there. 2) include the kindle book. Just make it so I’m buying the rights to the content and I’ll willingly let you lock me in to both the kindle and audible.
3) improve the UI of the apps. I have 50 or so booos now, and it seems inconsistent how they are ordered, where they are downloaded, which devices recognize I’ve listened to them, etc. give me a way to organize my books, give me adjustable playback speed on my echo.
2) Kindle book included would be great however I think the cross licensing would be difficult and distribution of income would cut their margins considerably.
3) UI improvement is a must! I have over 200 books and it is a nightmare to find anything on the mobile app.
I just wish audio books were cheaper. I understand the price - voice acting and audio mixing - but it's still in the realm of too expensive for a few hours of one-shot entertainment.
Changes audible could make to increase the amount I consume audiobooks.
1) I'd really enjoy a "pause at the end of a chapter" button. So many times I would have pressed this and consumed more audiobook in a session than just pausing in the middle of a chapter. I think it would also improve reading comprehension and enjoyment.
2) Let me buy books on the app. I once spent a week without listening to audible because I kept forgetting to browse books when I was at a laptop computer.
3) The UI could have better grouping for series. I've read books without knowing they are series until I talk about the book with someone a few weeks later. The UI should let me know and suggest I buy the next book.
4) The UI should do a better job of highlighting the cheapest price. Sometimes it's cheapest to use a credit. Sometimes it's cheapest to buy the audiobook without a credit. Sometimes it's cheapest to buy the kindle book then buy the audiobook.
5) The books need better production quality. Books with multiple readers are significantly better then books with one readers. The reader has a large impact on the tone of the book. This isn't Amazon's responsibility now, but if they wanted to increase sales of audiobooks they could approach it from this angle.
Audible has this feature, it's just hidden in the Sleep Timer menu. It has the exact functionality you describe, though: pauses the book at the end of the chapter. I've been using it nightly for a long time.
It also has timed options, of course, as well as pause at end of book part.
If you get an annual Audible 'subscription' you're looking at something like £7 per audiobook. (Oddly they don't advertise that this package exists, but it does.) Even less than that if you play the game and go for Audible's promotions.
> Let me buy books on the app
I agree this is an odd omission. Could it be something to do with Apple's rules about handing over their cut? They gave Spotify a hard time a while ago - https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/1/12082398/apple-music-spoti...
Edit: apparently the Android app has no such restriction, so I suspect I may be right. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16324731
Edit2: Yup - https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-Audible-allow-you-to-purcha...
Listening comprehension.
I'd really like to have a start/stop button on UI by pressing which the app automatically captures a note in text format and stores in the cloud under the same Audiobook. I hate to always take manual notes and in process miss out what narrator said during the time I was taking the notes.
Otherwise, its a good product. The dark patterns represent short-term thinking. I'd be hooked on Audible if I could buy an Audible Prime-like subscription to purchase discounted audio books. Give me a deal on the latest recommended books and you can notify me all day long just like Netflix.
Amazon has been buying the rights then doing the production for audiobooks for years. They have the data and they have the will to bring audiobooks to market that the publishers either don't care about or don't know about. In this regard their initiative to buy rights before publication is nothing new.
What is new is that other retailers are wise to audio being the only place in the industry where there is growth.
* Rakuten bought Overdrive — an audio provider for public libraries — then used that catalog to launch audiobooks at Kobo.
* Google has launched audio
* Apple has redesigned their books app to better serve audio (which is serviced by Audible)
* All magnified by smart speaker popularity
It sucks when agents/publishers sign exclusive agreements with Audible so that their books are kept off competitors' platforms.
It also sucks that once DRM-free audio platforms like Downpour.com and libro.fm have started to add DRM... this is presumably a 'level-playing-field' measure in their contracts likely brought about by the above interest in audio... this should be illegal IMO... but kudos to Audible for protecting their business.
Another great example of how Bezos' initiatives from 15 years ago — namely to start Audible productions — are paying dividends in other areas, like Alexa, today.
Prices were also pretty low, although I think they were running a promo because it was a new service.
I don't think they have a subscription model though. It's a pay per book kind of thing. I prefer this way because with the subscription I always felt like I was missing out if I didn't listen to at least 3 books. But there's value in having a subscription model.
Curious if someone have experience with other audio book ecosystems
The audible subscription is a much better value, when I get full on credits I can just cancel my sub until I'm ready for more books and don't have to pay $40 or something. If I really want a cheap book (something less than the subscription price, I will just buy outright and save my tokens for something expensive)
My only real complaint with Amazon (and it may be a publisher rule) is you don't get the kindle version for free. If I want to switch between book and text seamlessly I have to buy both versions.
Does anyone know if the author gets less money when buying an audio book vs a text book?
I find a huge amount of value for the effective $1-2 per hour I end up paying, even before considering the no-thought-required return policy and pro-rating the cost from multiple listens.
YMMV, but I consider my audible subscription some of the best value I receive for my money.
Similar details on the best ways to use Google's would also be much appreciated!
But you lose the credits when you do this.
[0] https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio...
Fantasy books are notably that much more interesting with dedicated narrators.
A good example is Altered Carbon - the narrator is Takeshi Kovacs.
I'm not familiar with any particular benefit of one group access option vs. any other. I hope all these digital libraries will start dealing with beneficiaries inheriting things as a first-class scenario soon!
I read a few commenters here talk about how expensive Audible is. Not only does this eliminate the cost, but I’ve found that when I have unlimited access, it leads me to try audiobooks I never would have considered before.
The one possible downside is that you need to walk into your library for a moment and get a library card. But it’s easy.
And if you don’t live in the US it might not be available, which is always painful
Hoopla, if your library supports it (few do in my experience), has a different selection with no waitlists.
On 500MB/s line and getting like 300-700k down from them
Period.
Not sure we need any qualifiers.
The only downside is I have to make sure I pick my audiobooks carefully. Ideally it's things that I want to listen to in the car on long drives, but wouldn't read day-to-day, and so end up wasting the extra $10-15 narration.
I've been using Rockbox for more than 10 years and know the interface by heart (there was one occasion where the screen broke on a player but I could still use it perfectly fine, by counting the button presses) so one part is just simple habit.
There is no personal information on the device, so there is no need to lock it and for me to try and unlock it in a hurry and if I lose it it's only annoying.
I really like the physical buttons, I don't have to look at the thing to do stuff (yes, there are other solutions to this).
Battery life is usually excellent.
At the moment I'm using a SanDisk Sansa Clip Zip. Once that thing breaks I'll probably just use my streaming server (via airsonic) on my phone and yell at the touchscreen because I have no idea what dedicated player is still usable with rockbox (apart from the refurbished old ones).
I’m a developer with a very wide (and doubtless shallow) experience. And I love audio books.
I use Audible a lot but I do rue Amazon’s excessive dominance in this space.
There's no easy to find app that lets me easily search and play interesting articles , easily. There's also nothing that fits the context of doing something else and wanting a stream of interesting stuff according to a search query.
And recently there were big.leaps in quality if machine speech.
And maybe there's some role to play for hands-free dialogue with the machine.
And because it is a tool for learning , not just enterntainment , you may be able to justify a reasonable monthly subscription - if the app is effective.
I don't see an option for them on the non-logged in page, but I buy a set of them, and then can use them how I want, not per month.
While the Netflix model is nice for residual content, 90% of the books I want are available on Audible - I'd rather have that selection than a more limited selection I could get in a subscription model.
I think some places do a subscription, though - Have you looked at Playster?
I know at least one author has written about this: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2015/06/cmap-why...
To say nothing of versions where it's just one person reading it straight through, though. Surely those are much cheaper.
https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/scribd-reintroduces...
looks interesting.
I hope they don't succeed. Not for the benefit of "traditional" publishers, but to keep the space open for innovators.
I like my kindle, and I'm happy-ish with my audible subscription (apart from the subscription part). but I'm disapointed with Amazon's lack of market disruption.
Usually, a medium change is more impactful than the ebook revolution has been so far. Famously, when magazines were new and exciting, whole new types of content emerged. Serialized stories (like sherlock holmes), short stories, home and garden stuff, fashion stuff, gossip... types of writing that weren't popular before, but found a home in magazines.
When paperbacks emerged, whole new styles emerged. The combination of larger, wider reader-base aand lower price point allowed books to be more frivolous. You could have trashy romatic novels, scifi, diet books... Writers could write in a more more coloquial, working class dialects (think catcher in the rye). Dime books did something similar a century before that, and birthed teen fiction. Pamphlets published a century before that laid down the basis for our current political culture.
eBooks..... Amazon seems to have actively pursued a strategy whereby books go digital, but nothing else changes.... as little as possible anyway. Publishers (now fronting no costs, printing no books, and doing little to promote sales^) get to have their business models unaltered, with the author's cut staying in the 10-20% range. Price points are maintained. The physical limitations (like word count) are of the old medium are maintained.
Where are the "medium-is-the-message" changes. Where are the short stories (great for author discovery)? Where is the 75% author royalty (possible via "self publishing," but still a slightly shamedl 2nd class citizen). Where is the new serialized novel boom, the author interaction. The new type of book. Where's the 25c price point (Amazon's the perfect place for micropayments).
Where is the reader-backed advance. You hear authors beg for pre-orders on amazon, so that publishers will advance them for their next book. This should be a "pledge" button, with amazon advancing the author the actual amount. ..and they should have a default place to beg. If one of the authors I read wants to write me something, I want to read it. Give me a feed.
Also, the monopoly is a bad thing. The format/library/platform lock-in is a bad thing (even worse on audible). Do authors want me to lose access when I switch ereaders or unsubscribe from audible?
Most nonfiction in a high street window display is 25% content, 75% filler. Everyone is bound by the page-count of a "normal book." Think of Rich Dad Poor Dad or 4-hour workweek, Tyler Cowen... They can't sell a 70 page book so they add fluff. Amazon could. I'd like to read them, especially for a cheaper price.
Where is the social discovery? I'm sick of average reviews. I want to see bill gates' reviews, my brothers'. Where is the online book club?
There is so much more ebooks could be doing. Amazon isn't doing it. Pubishers won't do it. But, if the space was clear, my guess is that someone would show up.
^ From what I can tell, publishers now have two jobs. One is editing. The second is gatekeeping+financing, the advance. This is essentially sorting books into will/won't sell 5,000 copies piles.
With less than 0.1% of their gross revenue, Amazon could provide an entry level advance ($10k-ish) + editor fees to twenty thousand authors. They have the data to predict sales better than publishers anyway. If authors can get the full cut, sales required to pay back an advance would be cut to a fraction. How's that for original content... netflix?!!
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/