Audible Plus launched, will give access to new titles for free to members

The new Audible Originals which are being released on the free tier include shows featuring celebrities including Sanya Malhotra, Varun Sharma, Kubbra Sait, Sayani Gupta, etc.

“We launched Audible in November 2018 with an English catalogue. By December 2019, it was clear that India was one of the fastest marketplaces for Audible in terms of growth trajectory,” Shailesh Sawlani, VP and Country GM for Audible India, told indianexpress.com. He added that Audible’s popularity has only grown through the pandemic with many users coming and exploring Suno as well as the paid version of the app.

“In fact, we’re now at a point with our paid offering where our most engaged customers are actually spending about two and a half hours per day on the service,” Sawlani claimed.

Shailesh Sawlani, VP and Country GM for Audible India.

With Audible Plus, the company plans to enhance the value proposition for both the paid and non-paying customers. So while the monthly cost remains Rs 199, with Audible Plus they will get access to 15,000 new audiobook titles as part of the all-you-can-listen catalog. They can access these audiobooks for free.

The catalog also includes some India originals which the company has created as well as international titles as part of the 15,000 such as the Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, Stephen King titles, Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, etc.

“We’re also launching over 40,000 podcasts that sit alongside display selection in the core Audible app,” he added with the idea being to let customers access everything in one app.

The all-you-can-listen Plus catalogue is in addition to one monthly credit available to members, which gives them access to a new audiobook every month, regardless of duration or price. “The plus catalog is a subset of what’s available for you as a member,” he explained.

For non-paying customers, Audible app is now giving access to the original podcast content as well, which includes titles from Jay Shetty, Sadhguru and Ted Talks Daily.

According to Sawlani, the audio segment is starting to grow in a big way in India, boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “What we’re seeing is customers telling us that they have really incorporated Audible into their routines; whether it is doing the laundry, folding clothes, ironing clothes, meal preparation, etc. Pre-pandemic most consumption of audio was during the commute hours, which got disrupted. But over time and through the pandemic, we saw that the pattern of consumption is actually getting distributed throughout the day,” he pointed out.

In his view, audio gives users the choice to be either an active or passive listener and doesn’t require them to be glued in front of a screen, which is why it is making such an impact and finding wide adoption.

Regarding categories of audiobooks which do well in India, Sawlani said that self-help content is what sees a big response. “Self help books be it Atomic habits, Ikigai, even Hindi translations of these have done well on both paid and Suno,” he said adding that books on spirituality and mythology as well as biographies also do well on the platform.