Yesterday Amazon officially announced they are rebranding Kindle Unlimited to Kindle+, and they’re now including “audiobooks with virtual voice” on KDP Select titles.
Amazon is putting a bigger emphasis on audiobooks in general when it comes to Kindle+. Authors can now add ACX audiobooks to Kindle+ by enrolling them in KDP Select. If a book doesn’t have a traditional audiobook available (the ones read by humans), Amazon can create an audiobook with a virtual voice to go along with it, and both will be available through Kindle+.
Here’s a quote from the email Amazon sent to authors:
Audiobooks with Virtual Voice: When the associated eBook is enrolled in KDP Select, audiobooks with virtual voice are automatically included in Kindle+ (and the Audible Plus catalog). If your eBook is already enrolled, your audiobook is now available to Kindle+ listeners, and no action is required from you. If you’d like to make your audiobook available in Kindle+, go to your KDP Bookshelf and enroll your eBook in KDP Select and your audiobook will be added automatically.
So far the new audiobooks are only available through Kindle+ in the US, but Amazon is expected to add more marketplaces in the future.
The Kindle+ rebranding is still a mess on Amazon’s website. Some places still say Kindle Unlimited, and some say Kindle+, and in some cases there are discrepancies on the same page. On the product page for the Kindle Matcha, there are now three options to choose from, making things more confusing than ever. You can select “Without Kindle Unlimited”, “With 3 months of Kindle Unlimited”, or “With 3 months of Kindle+”.
I never understood the purpose of the pre-purchase selections to begin with, like it’s some sort of physical hardware difference. Just give people the option to sign-up for 3 months free during the initial setup process. Why do they make you select it before checking out?
The new Kindles all say “Without Kindle Unlimited” by default, as they don’t have a way to add the free 3 months yet (Amazon did send me a free 2 months offer after buying one of the new Kindles, but it didn’t work—it defaulted to the standard 30-day trial every time I clicked the link).
If you’re a fan of audiobooks, particularly AI-narrated audiobooks, then this is going to be a big boon for Kindle+. It sounds like it’s not all that different from using text-to-speech, but it’ll be more convenient for subscribers, and certainly more controversial.
Disappointed to learn the audiobooks through Kindle+ are AI. I sometimes use the text-to-speech option on my Kindle app to listen to books while at work. The voice is passable but I hate how I can’t pause via my earbuds. I have to touch the screen, but I am not allowed to have my phone visible on the floor.
I’m betting the AI audiobooks have the option to pause via headphones as a marketing ploy. I like the text-to-speech option as a way for people with disabilities to enjoy books. But I do not want to spend money on AI narration. I’d much rather buy a human voice.
For the record, I’ve had Kindle Unlimited for years solely for borrowing books. I will not be downloading the AI audiobooks out of protest.
Doesn’t the AI audiobook appear automatically when you download a Kindle+ ebook? When testing the new Kindles, I noticed they would automatically add the (real) audiobook to my library when downloading Prime ebooks, and I’d be surprised if they didn’t do the same thing with Kindle+.
Another thing that’s not clear to me, are they selling the AI audiobooks, or are they just available through Kindle+? If they’re selling the AI audiobooks like regular audiobooks then that’s taking it to a different level entirely, and I can see why people would be put off by that.
So it’s basically Assistive Reader but better…
You can choose without Kindle Unlimited when you buy a new Kindle, so you won’t get nagged about it when you register your new Kindle.
Kindle+ audiobooks with AI voices on your AI-written books. What a great deal… #not
The only good thing is that, assuming they stick to the current number of books we can check out, the audible versions do not count against our total allowed.