The e-book subscripton service Scribd has reached a deal too add more than 9,000 Penguin Random House audiobooks to its inventory. The addition will expand Scribd’s audiobook subscription library to more than 45,000 titles.
Since launching in 2013, Scribd and Oyster, the two major e-book subscription competitors, have sought to include Penguin Random House titles in their services. Although this deal adds Penguin Random House audiobook titles to Scribd’s service, PRH does not offer its e-book titles via subscription. (PRH has also reached a deal to sell its e-books via Oyster’s newly launched e-book store, but does not offer titles via the subscription service.)
Scribd launched its audiobook subscription service in November 2014 with 30,000 audiobook titles. The new deal will give Scribd subscribers access to audiobook editions of such bestselling Penguin Random House fiction as The Girl on the Train, Fifty Shades of Grey, and Gone Girl; as well as such nonfiction titles as Bill Clinton’s My Life (narrated by the former president) and Barack Obama’s Dreams of My Father.
Scribd CEO and cofounder Trip Adler said since adding audiobooks to the Scribd service, “reading time on Scribd has doubled,” and added that “we are excited to work with Penguin Random House Audio to expand the potential audience for audiobooks.”
