India has emerged as Dubai’s second biggest trading partner after China with the overall volume touching 38.5 billion dirham in the first half of 2021, according to official data released.
Audible on Friday said India is among its fastest growing markets and the Amazon company has been focussing on expanding its content catalogue to enhance experience for its users.
Audible has now launched an ‘all-you-can-listen Plus catalogue’ for members and a free experience with thousands of titles for users in India.
The free experience also houses titles offered on the Audible Suno app that has featured voices such as Amitabh Bachchan (Kaali Awaazein), Anurag Kashyap, Tabu, Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Thriller Factory), Vir Das (Be Stupid with Vir Das) and others.
The Plus catalogue has over 15,000 titles and is available to all members at no extra cost, while the free tier houses over 150 exclusive podcasts and Audible Originals in addition to over 40,000 popular podcasts such as On Purpose with Jay Shetty, Sadhguru and Ted Talks Daily from around the world.
The Audible Originals catalogue features titles with popular actors and authors including Secrets of Good Health by Rujuta Diwekar, Buri Nazar featuring Sayani Gupta, Rithvik Dhanjani, and Supriya Pathak Kapur, Sasural Wonder Phool featuring Sanya Malhotra and Varun Sharma and others.
”We’ve been committed to our goal of creating and delivering incredible audio storytelling programming in India; today, we’ve expanded our free selection to include thousands of podcasts, besides over 150 exclusive podcasts and Audible Originals for all listeners to experience,” Shailesh Sawlani, VP and Country GM at Audible India, told PTI.
The all-you-can-listen Plus catalogue for members offers users more value for their subscription, he added.
All of this content, for members and non-members can be accessed on Audible Android and iOS apps, he said.
”India is among our fastest growing markets…During the pandemic, Audible saw listeners experiment with different genres while exploring the content library. Audiobooks from the self-development, spirituality genre and also noticed a spike in fiction (especially Romance and Horror) and Mythology too,” Sawlani said.
He added that there has also been an increase in “escapist fiction” during the pandemic too, i.e., fiction titles featuring places and situations very different from our world.
He, however, didn’t comment on the number of users in India.
”Over the last two years, we customized a lot of our content to provide value and relief to our listeners during these challenging times,” he said.
Audible has millions of members globally, who subscribe to one of 11 localised services designed for customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US.
Audible members download nearly 4 billion hours of content annually and listen across a wide range of supported devices.
