Amazon continues to add more features to the Prime membership, in their attempt to make every person on earth sign up for it 😉 The latest new addition is a big boon for fans of “radio programs” and audiobooks. It’s an Audible two-pronged feature added to the Prime membership and it is accessible only using the Audible iOS and Android and Windows Store apps. The two new benefits under this are:
- Audible Channels – radio programs, radio plays, podcasts, etc available through Amazon’s Audible Channels (previously only available to Audible members with an active/paying membership)
- Streaming Audiobooks – about 3-4 dozen of them at a time, may be rotating over time
To get to these, you have to download the Audible app from iTunes or Google Play or the Amazon App store or even the Windows store.
The audiobooks are a diverse group, from brand new “audio play” exclusives from Amazon Studios (including one with Elijah Wood) to classic literature and fiction. For example, here’s the five audiobooks available in the Science Fiction category, as you can see some heavy hitters and classic must-read/listen works:
One thing to note is that the audiobooks are STREAM-ONLY. You cannot download them to your device, so you need an active Wifi or cellular connection. This is in contrast to purchased audiobooks that can be downloaded and can be listened to without an internet connection (you still need the internet connection if you want to sync your notes and bookmarks and highlights and reading position and such).
If the Prime Music and Prime Videos are any indication, we can hope that over time Amazon will add more to this, and more specifically in the audiobook category since they are already including the Audible Channels.
LATEST COMMENTS