Audible’s unlimited listening plan comes as Indians tune into audiobooks

Audible, Amazon’s online audiobook and podcast platform, is making significant changes to how paid subscriptions work in India as well as adding more content for free-tier users. It is upgrading all paid subscribers to the Plus tier to open access to over 15,000 titles in English and Hindi and reducing the need for monthly credits to add certain audiobooks to the library. This will add access to Audible Originals and podcasts. Free users will now be able to listen to over 150 exclusive podcasts and Audible Originals as well.

The changes to the Audible subscriptions in India possibly come as a reaction to the engagement metrics, which while Amazon does not illustrate in numbers, are leading the way for all markets the company is present in. The Plus update is now rolling out for Audible’s Apple iPhone and Android apps, as well as access on Amazon’s Echo smart speakers.

Indians finding the time to listen to audiobooks

“India is leading the growth and engagement metrics for audiobooks, with paying members averaging engagement of 2.5 hours every day,” said Shailesh Sawlani, country head, Audible. He said in the pre-Covid times, audiobook user engagement usually spiked between 9 am-11 am and 5 pm-7 pm. This coincided with the travel to office and back. That has changed since.

Sawlani said since the pandemic hit, the audiobook listening hours have shifted through the day, depending on convenience and when work from home routine permits. “Listening hours have remained solid but spread through the day now.”

There is still some visible increase in audiobook listening at specific points of time during the day, such as pre-lunch or in the evening, coinciding with the evening walk window for many users. Audible users are also plugging in during the chore duties at home.

What audiobooks is India listening to

It is always the case that certain genres are more popular than others. Sawlani said self-development and mythological books are doing very well with a large demographic of Audible users. Surprisingly though, escapist fiction has worked very well with paid subscribers. DC’s The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and Dirk Maggs has been extremely popular. Durjoy Datta’s Last Girl to Fall in Love and The Last Boy to Fall in Love, both of which also have audiobook versions in Hindi, are some of the most heard audiobooks.

Audible Plus Catalogue reflects the preferences

Audible is focusing extensively on original content, including new shows that feature celebrities including Sanya Malhotra, Varun Sharma, Kubbra Sait, Sayani Gupta, Shabir Ahluwalia, Sriti Jha and Nakuul Mehta. Sawlani said Indian audiobooks that are now part of the Plus catalogue include Durjoy Datta’s The Last Girl to Fall in Love, season 2 of TVF’s Permanent Roommates, The Karadi Tales, The Panchatantra and Autobiography of a Yogi (the Hindi Edition) by Paramahansa Yogananda.

My Man Jeeves by P G Wodehouse, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection by Arthur Conan Doyle and narrated by Stephen Fry, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe top the popularity charts in the international category.

India’s importance for Amazon’s Audible

The Audible subscription in India costs ₹199 monthly. The subscriptions include credits every month. They allow users to add audiobooks that are not part of the catalogue to one’s library from over 2,00,000 Indian and international titles.

In India, Audible is competing with Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, as well as music streaming platform Spotify which has been aggressively ramping up podcast content in India. Also, audiobook playlists are also freely available on Spotify. In some countries, Spotify also offers audiobook content from Swedish audiobook streaming group Storytel, a partnership that was announced earlier this year.

While the unlimited listening access of the Plus catalogue has been added at no extra cost, users will still have the credits to add more audiobooks. All the content on the Suno app will also be available as part of the Audible Plus catalogue.

The subscription plan in India is significantly less expensive than Audible subscription costs in the US—at $7.95 per month (around ₹598 per month) for the Plus plan and $14.95 per month for the Premium Plus plan. India continues to be an important market for Audible’s business, alongside the UK, US, Italy, Canada, Germany, Japan and Spain.

Audible has confirmed the audiobooks will also be accessible via Amazon Alexa voice assistant, on the Echo smart speakers and smart displays. Free tier subscribers can enable the Suno skill in the Alexa app (free for Android and iPhone) and then say “Alexa, open Audible Suno” and proceed to choose an audiobook from their library.

The subscribers, who have a paid Audible subscription and get access to the Plus catalogue, must stream an audiobook to an Echo smart speaker from the Audible app on their phones. The Amazon Echo smart speaker must be connected with the home Wi-Fi to enable streaming.