How Amazon Audible works, Amazon's audiobook platform

How Amazon Audible works

Founded in 1995 in the United States by writer and journalist Donald Katz, today Amazon Audible is a service that makes tens of thousands of audiobooks available in all languages, to download and listen to anywhere. Although they still find little space in the cultural debate of our country, audiobooks have undoubtedly become an integral part of the relationship we have with literature and beyond: according to data from the market research company NielsenIQ relating to 2021, in Italy there are in fact at least ten million people who listen to audiobooks on a regular basis. Of these ten million, 54% are between 25 and 34 years old.

In short, an Audible trial is a way like any other to let yourself be drawn into a growing phenomenon, especially considering that the evaluation period made available by Amazon is free and lasts one month. Waiting for the debut of Spotify in the sector also in Italy, let's see how Amazon Audible works, how to register and what contents are included in the platform.

How to try Audible for free

To access the Audible service, you need to register or log in with your Amazon credentials from the appropriate page. After that it is possible to start the thirty-day free trial and in doing so access all the contents of the service, without incurring any limitation.

It is always possible to cancel the subscription to Audible, even during the thirty-day trial free and without paying additional costs; if instead the cancellation is not made within the deadline, the service will be automatically renewed for the following month.

In other words, in order not to incur any payment, it is necessary to click on "Cancel Subscription" starting from the appropriate instructions within the first thirty days of registration. It should be specified that regardless of when the cancellation occurs, the user will still be able to use the service until the end of the free trial.

How much does it cost after the first month

As mentioned, the first month is absolutely free and offers the complete service without limitations of any kind. From the second month onwards, the cost is 9.99 euros per month. It should be clarified that the subscription offers access to most of the contents in the catalog but not to all: there are in fact some books not included in the catalog for free use but which must be purchased individually in order to be listened to. The price is established by the publishers and by Amazon, and these audiobooks can be purchased on Amazon even without an Audible subscription; however, having an active subscription allows the purchase of any audiobook leveling the price at 9.99 euros, regardless of the original cost.

What content is there

Audible includes over 60,000 titles for a total of 200,000 listening hours. It is a very varied catalogue, both in genres – from romance novels to thrillers, from children's books to the great classics of literature, but also history and current affairs books, biographies, radio programs, podcasts, and much more – and in duration . In fact, they range from listenings of an hour or so to listenings of even twenty or more hours: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, for example, lasts over 73.

There is content both in English and in Italian, read by actors or dubbing professionals. The well-known voice actor Francesco Pannofino, for example, reads the entire Harry Potter saga by JK Rowling. Furthermore, many of the contents are exclusive to the platform: dozens of very well-known and appreciated titles that can only be found on Audible. Among these, there are for example Everything asks for salvation by Daniele Mencarelli – which later became a popular series for Netflix -, The name of the rose by Umberto Eco, The banality of evil by Hannah Arendt, Dune by Frank P. Herbert, and the winner of the 2017 Strega Prize The eight mountains by Paolo Cognetti, which later became an appreciated film in theaters even now despite being released in 2022.

Other advantages and functions: offline listening, Amazon Echo timer

Available both from the PC and on the application both on Android and on the Apple Store, Audible offers various advantages. For example, you can download content to up to ten devices simultaneously. You can also insert bookmarks, check the number of chapters, the remaining reading time, advance or go back thirty seconds at any time, adjust the speed and even set an end-of-read timer so that playback stops automatically when the timer expires: a particularly useful feature when you have a limited amount of time to listen and want to avoid losing track of the time or at night when you want to sleep.

For those who have an Amazon Echo device at home, it is possible to ask Alexa to read the book with very simple voice commands such as “ Alexa, read [title of the audiobook] ” and “ Alexa, stop ” or “ Alexa, pause ” to stop.