Audible extends exclusive iTunes Store deal with Apple through 2010

Monday, July 31, 2006 · 4:52 pm · 7 Comments

“Audible shares inched up slightly Monday after the company said it will extend its exclusive deal with Apple for an additional three years,” Katie Dean reports for TheStreet.com.

“Audible will continue to stock the virtual shelves of the iTunes Music Store with more than 16,000 audiobooks, paid podcasts, radio programs and language instruction, among other content, the company said. The original deal was set to expire in September 2007. Now, Audible will be the exclusive supplier of such content until September 2010,” Dean reports.

“Analysts applauded the extension and said it speaks to the value of the digital audio content company and bodes well for Audible over the long term,” Dean reports.

Full article here.

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7 Comments

geo

Monday, July 31, 2006 - 5:26 pm · Reply

Now, if Apple would only match the prices available through http://www.audible.com. In our experience, books purchased through the Apple iTunes Music Store are much more expensive than the same books purchased with an audible.com subscription (to buy at least one book a month).

coolfactor

Monday, July 31, 2006 - 5:55 pm · Reply

@geo

I compared numerous audiobooks listed on both audible.com and iTMS, and the iTMS prices were lower every time.

coolfactor

Monday, July 31, 2006 - 6:00 pm · Reply

@geo (again)

Oh, I see. audible members get a discounted retail price. I’m guessing that falls below iTunes prices? Can you confirm?

So, you pay a monthly fee just to have the privilege to get a cheaper price. How much do you actually save in the end? I’d probably just prefer the single payment method rather than subsidizing my purchases with a separate fee.

Spark

Monday, July 31, 2006 - 7:01 pm · Reply

coofactor–
I am an Audible subscriber and you don’t pay a fee to receive a discounted price on books, per se. I pay $20 per month, and for that I can download any two books. A book may have a $12 value, or it may have a $35 value. Doesn’t matter. It would be had for me to regularly purchase two audiobooks per month from either ITMS or Audible for only $20 if it were not for the Audible subscription that I have.

progeny

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 12:01 am · Reply

Spark -

I have the same 2-book plan with Audible, and have had it for years, since the original Audible players were sold. The program is great, but I’d rather pick my selections from within iTunes, and have it honor my subscription plan, than having to d/l to desktop and “Add To Library” from the Audible website. Other than this (rather minor) annoyance, Audible is a first-rate service.

erk

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 8:50 am · Reply

audible books purchased on thier website or through iTunes are incredibly expensive, the way you keep the price down is via audibles supscription service, I do the 2 books a month for $20, where those 2 books would easily cost me $80-100 if purchased outright

makes a huge difference (been a member for some years)

Geo

Tuesday, August 1, 2006 - 12:52 pm · Reply

If you regularly “read” (or these days, listen to) a lot of books anyway, the Audible.com subscription plan really is a much better deal than purchasing individual audio books from the iTunes store. You just have to listen at a book-a-month pace and be willing to manually import the downloaded song files into iTunes.

My significant other does this and always has an iPod headset in her ear to listen to audiobooks as she works around the house and yard. Recently, we discovered we could authorize my laptop to use her Audible account. Now, we’re going to try sharing a plan and book orders. To start, I archived a year’s worth of her existing audio books to a network backup drive to free up space on her laptop and build a digital library for the household. Then, I moved an initial audio book to my newly authorized laptop and checked that I could listen to it. It works!

Before making an initial purchase, I plan to start by listening to a couple of the books she’s already consumed. Later, I’ll get an iPod, and then start adding a few purchases pof my own to the “digital book” library.

First up: John Stewart’s America. Next, I hope to download some perfomances by standup comic/commentator Lewis Black before moving on to some more serious fare……