Amazon has historically operated the Audible audiobook market as a separate entity, unrelated to the retailer’s broader goals and ambitions. Today, that changes a bit with the launch of a test that will allow Audible users to get recommendations on what to listen to next based on their Prime Video viewing behavior.
The company says this will be presented through a new discovery page feature called “Based on what you’ve recently watched on Prime Video.” In this carousel of recommendations, Audible users will be presented with a personalized selection of relevant titles.
As the feature is being launched in a test phase, there is no explicit opt-in or opt-out statement at this time. Instead, Amazon says that half of users who have both Audible and Amazon Prime will see the recommendation carousel in their app.
Image Credits: Audible
The recommendations themselves use collective filtering to predict other relevant audiobooks for readers based on what they watch on Prime Video and what other users like them have listened to. These recommendations may include titles, stories, subgenres and authors preferred by customers with similar preferences, Amazon tells us.
Audible says the feature was inspired by consumer behavior it had already seen. When the books were adapted into shows or movies, Audible would see an accompanying increase in viewership for the source material. For example, in the two weeks after “Reacher” premiered on Prime Video in 2022, average daily listening minutes for author Lee Child’s catalog increased by nearly 80 percent. Two weeks after “The Summer I Turned Pretty” drove average listening minutes for author Jenny Han’s catalog by more than 10 times. Other titles such as “Daisy Jones & The Six” and “Red, White, and Royal Blue” also saw increases of 2.5x and 4.3x, respectively.
Image Credits: Audible
However, we think it’s more likely a response to finally having some competition in the audiobook market, as Spotify has now added 15 hours of audiobooks to its Premium subscription in some markets, with the option to top up as many hours as needed. The move made Spotify the No. 2 audiobook provider behind Audible. In addition, the music streaming service may use its own customer data to make recommendations. For example, someone who listened to a lot of pop might have been recommended Britney Spears’ memoir. However, TV shows and movies are a stronger source of recommendations since they are often adaptations of books.
Audible’s ties to Amazon have strengthened in recent months, with the company’s audiobooks being integrated with Amazon’s “Your Books” tracking program, for example. It now uses Amazon data to power recommendations.
“There’s a natural synergy between TV, movies and books, and we see that clearly in the way our customers interact with content on Audible,” Andy Tsao, Audible’s head of product and analytics, said in a statement provided at TechCrunch. We’re constantly innovating to deliver what our customers want, and we’re excited about the potential of this feature to help our listeners dive deeper into the stories and worlds they love in other media, as well as discover new ones.
