Scribd rolls out audio book service, mounting competition against Amazon

Scribd rolled out their new audio book service which allows Scribd members to add 30,000 audio book titles to their membership, without adding a new premium.

"Audiobooks are just a good fit for your iPhone or your Android phone, while you're driving or if you're going to sleep," said Scribd CEO Trip Adeler. "They're a very good use case [for reading] and we think it's a big, growing market."

According to Scribd CEO Trip Adler, audiobooks is a $1 billion a year industry. The addition of audiobooks to Scribd's offer was one of the most popular requests, Adler said, and they were glad to offer their users what they consider "a natural extension of Scribd's existing content offering".

Amazon rolled out audiobooks to subscribers a while ago, but there were a limited number of titles available. In fact, it seemed like Amazon's audiobook service was somewhat of an afterthought, being bundled with the 700,000 e-books that are offered with Kindle Unlimited.

The company has already rolled out audiobook support for their Android and Kindle Fire apps, and the update for iOS users is also on the way. If all else fails, users can still listen to their audiobook of choice through the Scribd website.

Scribd hopes that the addition of audiobooks to its service will help make its offering more robust and appealing to prospective users.

HarperCollins Publishers chief digital officer, Chantal Restivo-Alessi, stated "Audio is a growing category and one that needs additional distribution channels. By making our audio books available through Scribd, we're opening up a much wider market for our author's works."

However, Scribd says the robust growth from companies like Amazon signals that they are moving in the right direction with their product line too.

Adler continues, "With audio books, I think publishers have already warmed up to the model and it fits what we're already doing."