Audible Rolls Out New Royalty Plan

Leading audiobook platform Audible has announced a change to its royalty model that the Amazon-owned company said will enable creators “to monetize more types of content,” and listeners “to discover more innovative storytelling.”  

In a blog post, Audible officials sketched out the broad strokes of a plan they said “prioritizes equity, flexibility, and insight” and that evolved out of “ongoing conversations with authors and publishers.” Among the changes, more titles—including those Audible’s all-you-can-listen offering, Audible Plus—will now be able generate royalty payments, with “new ways to monetize and promote content.” Furthermore, creators and publishers who “sign up” for the new royalty model will also receive monthly statements (as opposed to quarterly) as well as “additional insights” and “other data points” on how their work is performing with consumers.

It remains to be seen how creators will respond to the changes, but the announcement comes after one of Audible’s most vocal critics, bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, reported in March that Audible officials had approached him to discuss “a new royalty structure they intend to offer to independent writers and smaller publishers,” a plan that Sanderson said was “encouraging.”