2 min readAmazon is looking for a vibe-check as it considers broadening of the remit of Audible.
As per a survey sent out to select customers “to help us better understand our customers and improve Audible offerings”, the popular audiobook subscription service may soon expand beyond audiobooks and podcasts to include music, language learning and a slew of AI-enabled features.
Obviously, the big caveat here is that companies like Amazon send out surveys like this all the time. It’s much quicker, easier and cheaper to get a vibe-check from your customers this way than it is to roll the dice and find out after the fact.
All of this is to say that this is far from an official announcement or press release. Some or all of the potential features and changes that it mentions may never materialize and should be taken with a grain of salt.
That said, Audible is the biggest name in audiobook subscription services and Amazon has made no secret of trying to make it even bigger in recent years. While some of the possibilities teased in this survey may sound a little far-fetched, others are both undeniably intriguing and only a stone’s throw from what the company is already doing with generative AI.
One of the recurring lines of questioning that the survey brings up is the value that having access to music alongside podcasts and audiobooks might offer. This all-in-one app offering is one of the key differences between Audible and Spotify. However, if this survey is anything to go by, that difference may be short-lived.
Alongside music integration, other potential additions that the survey asks customers to rate include guided meditations, Blinkist-style summaries, interactive lessons designed to help you learn a language, professional courses, audio textbooks and support for amateur and user-created content like fan-fiction.
As mentioned, AI is also something of a recurring theme. Alongside the usual novelty of talking to a chat-bot that pretends to be an author or character, many of the possibilities that the survey teases aim to make more niche audio books more accessible and interactive.
The two biggest examples of this are “digital cookbooks with synced audio and illustrations” and “digital graphic novels/manga/comics with synced audio and illustrations.”
Others are more utility-focused in nature, such as using AI to provide you with a snappy recap to help you remember where you last left off listening or adding a visual stimulus that keeps you a little bit more mentally engaged during that morning commute.
Naturally, the survey also suggests a number of ways in which Audible could use AI to enhance traditional audiobooks.
Some of the options mentioned in the survey include “audiobooks that include game-like elements such as leveling up”, “audiobooks where you can make choices that influence how the story unfolds”, “audiobooks with full casts and immersive soundscapes that create a more movie-like experience” and “audiobooks narrated by AI that can adapt the voice to your preferences or add voices for each character.”
That last one is noteworthy, given Audible’s recent efforts to roll out new AI-powered tools for narrators looking to distribute their stories using the platform.
Speaking to Reviews.org earlier this year, author Travis Baldree expressed skepticism that Audible’s new AI-powered tools would bring much in the way of benefits to creators like himself.
