Amazon introduces subscription based audiobooks streaming service 'Audible' in India

After a year of speculation, Amazon has introduced its audiobooks streaming service – Audible in India. It’s a second subscription-based service launched by the online retail behemoth after Prime.

Currently, Amazon is offering 30 days free trial to users with a free credit to up to three audiobooks.

Priced at Rs 199 per month, presently Audible is in beta stage and claims to have catalogue of over 200,000 audiobooks. Apart from Android and iOS apps, Audible can also listen via its website.

Unlike the US where subscribers are entitled to access three titles every month, Indian users will have a limit to a single title. Amazon is also offering a yearly and half-yearly subscription plan at Rs 1,345 and Rs. 2,332 respectively.

Earlier this year in January, Google had introduced Audiobooks in India for Android and iOS devices as well as Google Home smart speakers.

Acquired by Amazon in 2008 for $300 million, Audible sells digital audio-books, radio and TV programmes as well as audio versions of magazines and newspapers including The New York Times.

It’s worth noting that the spread of e-books in India, as well as Amazon’s e-book reading device Kindle, has fallen short of its successes in the United States. In 2013, the Kindle and its variants were introduced in India while video streaming device Amazon Fire Stick was launched in April this year.

Going forward, Amazon also plans to introduce locally produced Audible books narrated by Indian storytellers. Earlier in February this year, Amazon had launched Amazon Prime Music as part of its Prime service in India.

The development was first reported by Gadget360.