Audible Channels is Free to Existing Audible Subscribers
Earlier this week Audible expanded its three-month-old podcast streaming service Channels and opened it to the public.
Channels is why Audible had been hiring all that public radio talent over the past year or so. It falls somewhere between a podcast service and streaming talk radio.
From Techcrunch:
Audible is careful not to call these audio shows “podcasts,” though those of us who are fans of that type of media will recognize them as functionally identical. In an interview with the WSJ, Audible SVP of original content development Eric Nuzum explains why: The company doesn’t want to limit their audience by alienating those who might not be familiar with podcasts, or who might know the term but don’t consider themselves podcast listeners.
Make no mistake, though: The potential Amazon and Audible sees in Channels is the same potential that many others have been picking up on in podcasts. Podcasts present a way to provide multi-genre, opt-in entertainment to consumers with relatively low cost of entry, and unlike most other types of media, it can be consumed concurrent with other activities. But there’s one other reason Amazon in particular might be interesting in securing a beach-head with this Amazon of Audio – Alexa.
There’s no word yet on how Channels will integrate with the Fire tablet, and strangely enough it’s also not available in the web browser. You have to have the Audible app to access it.
It costs $5 a month – unless you have an existing audiobook subscription with Audible, in which case Channels is free.
I do have a sub, and I would cancel it if not for the fact that Audible would rob me of my unused credits. But I have not had a chance to try Channels. If it were on the website or my Fire tablet, I would have given it a try, but I am between Android tablets at the moment.
Have you tried it?
Comments
Chris Meadows July 9, 2016 um 7:47 pm
I listened to some of the episode of that show about the lives of Presidents pertaining to Theodore Roosevelt. Was pretty interesting, though I don’t know if it’s exactly going to set the world on fire.