Scribd adds audiobook offering

Online subscription service Scribd is adding 30,000 audiobooks to its library, with the “vast majority” available to UK customers.

Publishers including HarperCollins, Scholastic, Blackstone and Naxos have made titles available.

Audiobooks will be available as part of Scribd’s existing $8.99 a month subscription.

Titles available to UK users include the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (Scolastic), Moment of Truth by Lisa Scottoline, Dispatched from the Edge by Anderson Cooper, The Power of Now by Eckart Tolle, Babycakes by Armistead Maupin, The Hard Thing About Things by Ben Horowitz, and The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming, which is read by “Gone Girl” actress Rosamund Pike.

Trip Adler, co-founder and c.e.o. of Scribd, said: “We’ve always envisioned Scribd as a home for the best writing and storytelling in the world.

“Audiobooks are more than a $1b a year industry and they are a natural extension of Scribd’s existing content offering. This has been one of our most popular requests and we’re excited to reach book lovers wherever they are and however they choose to read – or listen.”

Chantal Restivo-Alessi, chief digital officer at HarperCollins Publishers in the US, said: “We are thrilled to work with Scribd on an audiobook offering.
“Audio is a growing category and one that needs additional distribution channels. By making our audiobooks available through Scribd, we’re opening up a much wider market for our authors’ works.” 

Listeners will be able to browse special audio-only collections curated by Scribd’s editorial staff, including collections arranged by length, narrator, and subject, from “Shakespearean Actors Reading Shakespeare” to “Roadtrip Listening: SF to LA,” to “What to Listen to on the Way to a Job Interview”.

Audiobooks are available now to subscribers on Android, Kindle Fire, Nook tablets, and web enabled browsers, and will available to iOS users in the coming days.

Scribd is partnering with Findaway World, a provider of digital audiobooks and technology solutions, to power its audiobook offering.