Alexa, Read Me A Book : Indians can now access their audible library using voice

Audible, the world’s largest creator and distributor of audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, is now easier than ever for Indian customers to sample and enjoy.  Audible.in, the company’s dedicated offering for India, is now compatible with Alexa, the cloud-based voice service. Downloaded content from Audible.in can be played across any Amazon Echo device or Alexa-enabled speakers using simple voice commands. Customers can now listen to their Audible library across devices – on Android or iPhone phones and tablets, Alexa-enabled smart speakers or and computers – allowing multiple ways in which they can enhance their daily routines through audio entertainment.

Alexa will now play audio content you downloaded from Audible.in’s broad selection of over 200,000 full-length audiobooks and original programs, including a curated selection of 400 Audible-exclusive titles by leading Indian authors. In addition to the launch title and multi-cast performance of the best-selling Mafia Queens of Mumbai brought to life by Bollywood stars Rajkummar Rao, Radhika Apte, and Kalki Koechlin, other titles available for listening in our amazing selection include The Last Boy to Fall in Love, an original audio-first title by Durjoy Datta, exclusive audio performances of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s greatest works, including Gitanjali and Kabuliwala, contemporary non-fiction by Rashmi Bansal, Shashi Tharoor, Rujuta Diwekar, and Pooja Makhija, popular fiction by Preeti Shenoy and Savi Sarma, mythological stories by Amish, Anand Neelakantan, Devdutt Pattanaik, Ashwin Sanghi, and Vineet Bajpai to name a few. As a limited time launch offer, there are some titles which Alexa users can enjoy for free. All customers have to do is say: “Alexa, what’s free from Audible?” and Alexa will list out the titles that one can listen to for free, which include Great Stories for Children by Ruskin Bond, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, My Hanuman Chalisa by Devdutt Pattnaik, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie and The Last Boy to Fall in Love by Durjoy Datta.

There are two ways to enjoy your Audible content through Alexa:

Saying “Alexa, read my book” or “Alexa, read my book from Audible”:

Alexa will start to play the last title you were listening to or play the most recently downloaded title if you have not listened yet on other devices. (If you have the same book in both Audible and Kindle libraries, Audible library will be played first.)

Using the Alexa app, select and enjoy the narration of downloaded Audible content in your library:

Select ‘Music and Books’ from the bottom menu in the Alexa application

Select the book you want to listen from the Audible Library Carousel, and choose the device you want to listen on from the pop-up menu, and it will be played automatically

Customers can also control the Audible playback experience by saying “Alexa, stop/resume,” “Alexa, rewind/fast forward,” “Alexa, go to the next chapter/previous chapter,” and “Alexa, rewind/fast forward 5 minutes” etc.

Customers can access Audible’s library of global content and membership benefits by signing up for a complimentary 30-day trial at the Audible.in site, which entitles them to any Audible book of their choice. Amazon Prime members can access a special 90-day trial, including three free audiobooks, at Amazon.in/audible. A premium Audible membership costs Rs 199 per month following a 30-day free trial. Members receive 1 credit a month, which can be used to redeem any title (1 credit =1 audiobook) from the library of over 200,000 available titles. Audible members also receive a 30% discount from non-member prices on additional audiobooks purchased, as well as access to exclusive sales and content. Audible also offers three prepaid plans: 1 month @Rs 299, 6 months @Rs 1,345 (25% discount) and 12 months @Rs 2,332 (35% discount). Non-members can purchase audiobooks a la carte.