Just days after Spotify announced its move into physical book sales, which included an audiobook feature that syncs listening and offline reading progress, Amazon-owned Audible has launched a new feature of its own. This feature brings ebooks and audiobooks together in a unified experience.
Audible announced on Wednesday an “immersion reading” feature in its app. It allows readers who own both the ebook and audiobook versions of a title in their Audible and Kindle libraries to read the ebook’s text while the audio plays simultaneously. The text is highlighted in real-time to match the narration. The feature also lets users switch between the different formats across their devices.
While the Kindle app already offered a tool to move between Audible and ebook versions when both were purchased, this capability is now coming to the Audible app for the first time. Customers will need to own both versions of the book for this to work, but discounted audiobooks will be offered to customers who already own the matching ebook.
At launch, hundreds of thousands of titles will support the new “Read & Listen” feature, including books in English, German, Spanish, Italian, and French. The option will initially be offered in the U.S., with support coming to the U.K., Australia, and Germany over the next few months. The Audible app will automatically identify which Kindle ebooks in a user’s library have matching audiobooks available.
Many customers were already combining reading and listening by having Alexa narrate their Kindle ebooks. However, Alexa’s more monotonous, AI-driven delivery can lead to zoning out. By offering a discounted audiobook add-on for existing ebook owners, Amazon aims to boost book sales across formats.
The company claims that combining reading and listening can improve focus and comprehension, based on industry research and its own internal data. It also notes that customers who read and listen are the most engaged, consuming nearly twice as much content per month as audiobook-only customers.
This feature may appeal to students, language learners, and anyone trying to get through books more quickly. It is also useful for those who regularly switch between reading and listening, and for readers who enjoy professional narration, especially by a favorite voice actor. Some may simply appreciate having a narrator pronounce character names correctly, which is particularly helpful in genres like fantasy.
In a statement, Andy Tsao, Chief Product Officer at Audible, said, “Audiobooks count as reading. But now at Audible, you can read with your eyes too. Read & Listen gives book lovers the best of both worlds. Whether you’re learning a new language, studying for school, or lost in a story’s world, you no longer have to choose one format over the other.”
Amazon notes that this new feature will not impact publishers’ royalty payments.