Audible: The Standard Plan
I am a big fan of Audible as a service. Over several years I have built up a sizeable collection of audiobooks and whenever a new title is released that is of interest to me, I instantly consider do I wish to buy a physical copy of the book in question or an audio version. I consume a lot of non-fiction titles, especially science based content. I find audiobook versions of such material a lot easier to digest, mainly due to the measured pace of the narrator that gives me time to consider and mentally digest what I am listening too. If I struggle with a point, I can instantly rewind the audio back 30 seconds and listen again. Plus listening to Stephen Fry or someone else with a distinctive and charismatic voice read something is eminently superior to my own inner monologue. Hence I find audiobooks to be a medium that if both convenient and enjoyable for me. Furthermore, the various subscription tiers of Audible have proven beneficial. That is until this March when they altered these.
Audible use to have a two tier subscription system. The first tier cost £8.99 a month and award the customer 1 credit that they could use to purchase an audiobook of their choice. The next tier cost more and gave the customer 2 credits per month. Both of these tiers also gave subscribers access to some free books and bespoke podcast content. If you stop subscribing you naturally lost access to the free books and Audible exclusive podcasts but you still owned the books that you purchased with your credits. Furthermore, every six months or so, Audible would have a promotion where you could subscribe to the first tier for only £2.99 a month for 3 months, then the price increased to the standard amount. This was very useful as you could take advantage of this for three months then cancel your subscription. Sadly, Audible decided that allowing customers to buy a newly released audiobook for just £1 is perhaps a little too generous. Hence they altered the subscription model.
A new entry level tier called the Standard Plan has been introduced that costs £5.99 a month. This again awards the customer with a credit that they can spend on any title in the current catalogue. However, the moment you stop subscribing, you lose access to that title. Hence you haven’t purchased the book you have simply rented access to it. It is not a dissimilar business model to some MMORPG video games. The old first tier option offering 1 credit for £8.99 has now become the second tier. As £8.99 still buys 1 credit, what is my point, I hear you ask. It is the elimination of the regular featured promotion of 3 months subscription at £2.99 and the fact that the new default, entry level tier of subscription doesn’t allow customers to own the books that they spend their credits on. This appears to be an example of the online version of “shrinkflation” and requires new customers to read small print very carefully as they are now “renters” and not “owners” at this tier of subscription.
