Audible Originals and podcasts

Audible is not only a shop for audiobooks other people made. It commissions its own audio, and it carries podcasts. Both of those get used in marketing as reasons to subscribe, and only one of them holds up under any scrutiny.

What an Original actually is

Audio commissioned and produced by Audible rather than licensed from a publisher: audio drama, spoken-word series, documentary-style productions and books written for audio first. Audible's own about page describes the company as working “with some of the world's greatest creators, producing Originals, audiobooks and podcasts”.

The interesting part is the format rather than the label. A full-cast audio drama is a genuinely different thing from a narrator reading a novel, and it is the sort of production that exists because a subscription service funded it. If you have only ever listened to single-narrator audiobooks, it is worth trying one to find out whether you like the form at all.

The bit nobody states clearly

Whether a given piece of Audible content costs a credit or comes with the membership is a per-title matter, and it is exactly the distinction people misunderstand when they subscribe. Audible does not publish a fixed rule we could read on its own pages, so this page will not invent one.

What to do instead is check the title's own page before spending anything, where the label is shown. The mechanics of the two categories are on included versus credit titles, which is the single most useful page on this site for avoiding an unwanted credit spend.

Podcasts, and why they are not a selling point

Podcasts are free. That is the beginning and the end of it. Any service can carry them, most do, and the ones on Audible are largely the same ones on every other app. Having them in the same place as your audiobooks is convenient if you already subscribe, and it is not a reason to start.

There is a narrow exception: exclusive spoken-word series that happen to be labeled as podcasts but are commissioned like Originals. Those behave like Originals rather than like podcasts, and the same per-title check applies.

If the wider question is which format suits your listening at all, audiobooks versus podcasts takes it seriously — and concludes that for a lot of people, short and interrupted listening is podcast territory and no subscription is needed.

Listening to them

The same places as everything else in your library. Audible's help page lists a voice command for the podcast side specifically — “Alexa, play podcast [name] from Audible” — with the note that it “isn't available in the Audible app for iOS”. The rest of the voice control picture is on Audible on Alexa and Echo.

Does any of this change whether to subscribe?

Marginally, and in one direction only. Exclusive audio drama is a real thing you cannot get elsewhere, so if that format appeals it is a genuine addition to the case. Podcasts are not, and should be discounted entirely when you do the arithmetic.

The arithmetic itself does not change. It is still a question of how many hours you listen and whether the titles you want need credits, and it is on whether Audible is worth it, where it comes out negative for a fair number of people. A catalog of exclusives you have not decided you want is not a reason to pay a monthly fee.