Barnes and Noble has been selling audiobooks since 2014. They created the Nook Audiobooks app for Android and iOS. Their catalog of content came from Findaway, which powers many audiobook retailers catalogs, such as Google, Kobo and Scribd. Barnes and Noble has announced that they are discontinuing their audiobook app and integrating everything into the main Nook app. They will also be shuttering their dedicated website they created for the service.
The Nook Audiobooks app has been in a constant state of development since it first came out. It never gained very much traction because Barnes and Noble never promoted the service. There was never any mention on their social media platforms and nary a press release, since the initial launch. The app was not pre-loaded on any of their tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab for Nook or any of their modern ones, such as the Lenovo Nook edition. It always boggled my mind why the bookseller wouldn’t even load in their own audiobook app on their own tablets, it just never made sense to me.
The discontinuation of the Nook Audiobook app is not the only change they are making. Barnes and Noble is going to be soon incorporating their entire audiobook catalog on their website via bn.com/audiobooks. Right now, everything is just placeholder, but in the future, you will be able to preview the audiobook, to get a sense of the narration. The sample or the paid audiobook will be automatically synced with your Nook account. Audio content will be in your library section of the main Nook app.
Barnes and Noble does not have an exact date of launch, the bookseller will contact existing NOOK Audiobooks users in the next few weeks when the new platform is available.
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.
