Audible is the leading audiobook company and they abide by the subscription model, where every month you are a paid member, they give you 1 credit, which you can redeem. Some plans are more expensive and give more credits per month. Audible has just opened up a Spanish branch and they are doing something different, instead of credits, they are offering a true unlimited model.
There will be over 70,000 audiobooks that will be available for Spanish listeners. You will be able to listen to audio titles both online and offline. The first month is free and then it will cost €9.99 per month. All of the big publisher titles will be there, except for Penguin Random House, since they withdrew all of their titles from unlimited platforms in January.
Audible also offers members unlimited listening to its catalog of Audible Original Podcasts, including Alaska’s interview series ‘Gen DRO’; the first Mario Vaquerizo Podcast with ‘La Historia con Mario’; the premiere of ‘Vis a Vis’ audio series with Najwa Nimri and Maggie Civantos; the terror audio series ‘Hablas Miedo’ by Mona León; the audio comedy ‘La que se avecina’; the documentary series ‘El Desafío’ with the story of ETA narrated by Ramón Langa; the self-care podcast by Elsa Punset “Pequeñas revoluciones”; Emilio Aragón’s audio debut with the children’s series ‘El desván de Miliki’; ‘El Móvil de Mendes’ narrated by Olga Viza; a weekly podcast from Marca; children’s titles by Viacom including Paw Patrol and SpongeBob SquarePants; a science and technology podcast called ‘Laife’, produced by Animal Maker; News podcasts by Ana Pastor and Newtral -‘Quién dice qué’; in-depth political analysis with Rubén Amón; interviews by David Jimenez in “Conversaciones con El Director”; and a leading English-language learning course by Vaughan.
To offer customers more exclusive content, Audible and Grupo Planeta are working together to produce hundreds of audiobooks under the label Audible Studios, including the complete saga of detective Carvalho de Vázquez Montalván, classics by Miguel Delibes to commemorate his 100th birthday, and best sellers from authors like Megan Maxwell, Leonardo Padura, Eduardo Mendoza and J.J. Benitez. Audible.ES members also have exclusive access to the complete catalogue of over 500 audiobooks that have been produced by Grupo Planeta. Audible has also entered into strategic content creation and distribution deals with publishers RBA, Anagrama, Roca Editorial, Edebe, Susaeta, La Esfera de los Libros, Almuzara, Duomo, Plataforma Editorial, Mueve tu lengua, Pottermore and Harper Collins, amongst other, as well as with literary agencies such as Carmen Balcells, Pontas, Antonia Kerrigan, Casanovas & Lynch, MBA, IMC or Silvia Bastos.
Audible currently still runs Audible Latino, which was aimed at U.S. Hispanic customers, but many Spanish speaking countries used it. It is very interesting that the first true unlimited subscription model was launched in Spain, instead of other countries. I suppose it’s because Storytel has been operating an unlimited model and has a three year jump on Audible, they currently have 150,000 paid subscribers.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
