No respectable book worm reads just one book a month, but audiobook subscription apps like Audible charge you $15 a month for just one audiobook. Needless to say, the arrangement is hardly ideal for most of the app’s users. Scribd is already challenging Kindle Unlimited, Oyster, and other Netflix-for-books subscription-based apps with its low monthly price of just $9, but now it’s sweetening the deal — a lot.
Scribd announced that users will now have access to 30,000 audiobooks at no additional cost. The best part? users will be able to listen to as many of those 30,000 volumes as they want each month. Audible may have 150,000 audiobooks, but the limit of one a month sours the deal, as does the higher price. Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service offers access to unlimited ebooks and audiobooks for $10 a month, but its audiobook library is limited to 2,000 titles.
Most of Scribd’s new audiobooks come from its partnership with HarperCollins, the same publishing company with which Amazon is quarreling over ebook pricing. Blackstone, Scholastic, and Naxos also contributed audiobooks to its library. Well-known titles including The Hunger Games, American Gods, The Alchemist, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and many more. You can take a peek at all of Scribd’s offerings on its website.
Scribd’s new offer of unlimited ebooks and audiobooks for less than $9 a month is a direct shot at Amazon, and may inspire the company to do the same with its service, Audible. Amazon’s already responded by adding unlimited audiobook listening to its Kindle Unlimited service. The inevitable price war should be a win-win for customers. Meanwhile, Scribd says it hasn’t ruled out the idea of creating more subscription tiers for different types of users, but for now, its audiobooks will be available to all for the same price.
