Audible (service)
Users are able to buy and stream audiobooks as well as other types of spoken word material via the usage of the Audible platform, which is an online audiobook and podcast service based in the United States. This material may be bought singly or as part of a subscription model, in which the user gets "credits" that can be redeemed for content on a monthly basis and has access to a curated on-demand library of content. The individual pieces of this content can be purchased as needed. The most audiobooks are produced and sold by Audible, which is also the most successful audiobook retailer in the United States. Audible is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., with its headquarters located in Newark, New Jersey. Audible owns the service and provides it to customers.
The Audible MobilePlayer was the first product ever produced by the company, and it was a portable media player that bore the company's name. It was initially released in 1997, and it had approximately four megabytes of on-board flash memory storage, which allowed it to store up to two hours of audio. In order for customers to use the player, they would first need to go online to the official Audible website, download the audiobook, and then load it into the player.
Microsoft made a financial investment of 11 million dollars in the firm in the year 1999. When Audible's Chief Executive Officer, Andrew J. Huffman, passed away on October 24, 1999, the company was dealt a devastating blow. The development of the product, however, continued, which resulted in Audible licencing the ACELP codec for its downloads in the year 2000. In the same year, Amazon purchased a 5 percent investment in the firm, which at the time was publicly listed.
In 2003, Apple and Audible came to a deal that would make Audible the sole source of audiobooks for the iTunes Music Store. This arrangement was terminated in 2017 as a consequence of antitrust judgements made in the European Union.
Two years later, the company developed a product called "Audible Air," which enabled consumers to download audiobooks straight to their personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones. Its material would be updated automatically, downloading new chapters as they were needed and causing them to erase themselves after the user had finished listening to them. The A-List collection was published by the firm in 2006, and it featured Anne Hathaway and Annette Bening reading notable texts from the organization's archives.
The material offered by Audible consists of more than 200,000 audio programmes that were produced by audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and information providers for businesses.