PRESS RELEASE
October 16, 2003
Audible and Apple Announce Availability of Exclusive Content Through Apple iTunes
Includes Over 20,000 Hours of Downloadable Audiobooks & Other Spoken Word Titles
SAN FRANCISCO—October 16, 2003— Audible, Inc. (OTC BB: ADBL) and Apple® todayannounced that more than 20,000 hours of audiobooks and other spoken wordprograms are now available for download exclusively from Apple's iTunes®Music Store. Through iTunes, Mac® and Windows customers can preview anddownload audio editions of best-selling books, magazines, radio programs andoriginal shows, manage audio content alongside their music collection, andtake their entire audio library with them for listening anywhere with themarket-leading iPod™ digital music player.
“With the addition of Audible's exclusive content to iTunes, now Mac andWindows customers can download audiobooks and music from one integratedonline music store,”said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president ofWorldwide Product Marketing. “The unbeatable combination of the iTunesdigital jukebox software, iTunes Music Store, and iPod digital music playerallows users to seamlessly buy, manage and transfer their entire collectionof audiobooks onto their iPod for listening anywhere.”
“As our customers can attest, audiobooks—and spoken word programming ingeneral—can change peoples' lives for the better,” said Donald Katz,chairman and CEO, Audible, Inc. “Audible's award-winning information andentertainment audio deserves to be marketed in an integrated way alongsidemusic. With this iTunes Music Store announcement today, we have reached animportant strategic milestone for our company.”
Audible.com is the exclusive provider of spoken word audio to the iTunesMusic Store and is the leading provider of digitally delivered spoken wordaudio. More than 5,000 spoken word audio titles from Audible can now bepurchased from the iTunes Music Store, including content ranging from newaudiobook bestsellers like “Bleachers” by John Grisham and “The Teeth of theTiger” by Tom Clancy to classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”by Mark Twain and the iTunes exclusive science fiction audiobook, “WhippingMek,” an original story by Brian Herbert and bestselling novelist Kevin J.Anderson that bridges the Legends of Dune trilogy novels “The ButlerianJihad” and “The Machine Crusade.” The Audible collection also includesspeeches, lectures, language lessons, audio editions of periodicals such asForbes and the Scientific American, as well as the best of public radioprograms such as Fresh Air, Car Talk and This American Life.
Newly released audiobooks and other new spoken audio content will be addedto the iTunes Music Store every week. All Audible content available from theiTunes Music Store can be burned onto an unlimited number of CDs forpersonal use, listened to on an unlimited number of iPods, and played on upto three Macintosh® or Windows PC computers. Apple's new 40GB iPod can holdover 800 full length audiobooks from Audible or up to 10,000 CD-qualitysongs in a stunning enclosure that is lighter and thinner than two CDs.
Audible (www.audible.com) is the Internet's largest, most diverse providerof premium spoken audio services for content download and playback onpersonal computers, CD or AudibleReady computer-based mobile devices.Audible has more than 34,000 hours of audio programs and 135 contentpartners that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters,entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business informationproviders. Audible.com is Amazon.com's (www.amazon.com) exclusive providerof spoken word products for downloading or streaming via the Web.Additionally, the Company is strategically aligned with Random House, Inc.,to pioneer the first-ever imprint to produce spoken word contentspecifically suited for digital distribution, Random House Audible. Amongthe Company's key business partners are Apple, Casio Inc., Handspring,Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, Palm, Inc., Royal PhilipsElectronics, RealNetworks, Inc., Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments andVoiceAge Corp.
- © 2003 Apple. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Mac,Mac OS, iTunes and iPod are either registered trademarks or trademarks ofApple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respectiveowners.