Audible Launches New Unlimited Subscription Tier Audible Plus

Audible has announced a new service that will provide unlimited listening to a curated library of audio entertainment. Audible Plus will provide subscribers access to 68,000 hours of content from more than 11,000 original productions, audiobooks, and podcasts.

The new offering will be available for $7.95 per month. Audible will continue to offer its credit-based premium service for $14.95 per month.

“Audible has always kind of been on the crux of innovation in this space,” Rachel Ghiazza, exec VP and head of U.S. content for Audible, told Variety. “For us this is an opportunity to highlight really well-crafted storytelling.”

Existing Audible members will be able to access the new Plus library today. New users will be able to subscribe to the Audible Plus service beginning Aug. 27.

Amazon-owned Audible has, in recent years, devoted increased resources to building out its audio content library, including through the development of original programming. Among the originals that will be part of the Audible Plus catalog are “When You Finish Saving The World,” written and performed by Jesse Eisenberg; “Yard Work,” written by David Koepp and performed by Kevin Bacon; and Dan Rather’s “Stories of a Lifetime.”

“We’re really investing in a ton of different content varieties — with that common throughput that is narrative, and that it has that really distinctive storytelling layer,” says Ghiazza. “We’re looking for things that are satisfying and enjoyable to a customer. When you find a piece of work where you have a creator who’s really thought about the format and really thought about writing for audio, and when you start to see the interplay of how character development and soundscape all come together, it’s really quite amazing.”