Facing new competition in the audiobook market from Spotify, Audible is turning to AI and other technology to enhance the listening experience. On Thursday, the Amazon-owned company introduced three new features that will allow listeners to explore a book’s characters, engage in interactive stories, and view additional imagery and bonus information about landmarks or places mentioned in the book.
New Features Overview
If you’re thinking the last would be great for highlighting the different courts’ locations in Sarah J. Maas’ faerie realm of Prythian, I must disappoint you. The feature will first arrive in just one title for now, “The Cultural Tutor: A Modern Guide to History, Art and Philosophy in 49 Short Chapters” by Sheehan Quirke, which focuses on making culture more accessible by teaching about poetry, art, architecture, geography, and more in short lessons.
The other new features, a character guide and interactive stories, are also starting off fairly small. With Audible’s October 1 release of its Audible Original “Dracula,” the character guide will help listeners keep track of the cast of characters in the book, something that’s harder to do when listening than when reading.
Character Guide and Interactive Stories
The Audible Originals label doesn’t necessarily signal that the content is original, as “Dracula” is not. It means Audible’s own studios have produced the audiobook, memoir, exclusive series, podcast, or performance. In “Dracula,” the character guide will display who’s speaking in real time directly on the player page so listeners don’t get lost. It will also provide spoiler-free character cards, which showcase the narrator behind the voice and their bio. Audible says users will later be able to interact with the guide to ask questions about the story as it unfolds.
