Audible.com Elevates the Audiobook Experience with Hollywood’s Biggest Stars
Audible to produce an electrifying new audiobook series featuring tour de force performances by acclaimed actors
Stellar roster includes 7 Academy Award® winners
NEWARK, N.J. – September 29, 2011 – Audible.com, the world’s leading provider
of digital spoken-word entertainment, is once again redefining the audiobook as popular
entertainment by introducing an exclusive line of tour de force audio performances by
some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Underscoring Audible’s global mission to establish
the audiobook as a mainstream form of interpretive art on a par with theater or film,
the new line will feature an unparalleled roster of the world’s most celebrated actors
narrating distinguished works of literature that each star has helped select.
The first of these new productions is scheduled to be released by Audible.com early in
2012. Actors slated to perform include:
Kim Basinger (The Awakening by Kate Chopin)
Annette Bening (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf)
Jennifer Connelly (The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles)
Colin Firth (The End of the Affair by Graham Greene)
Anne Hathaway (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum)
Dustin Hoffman (Being There by Jerzy Kosinski)
Samuel L. Jackson (A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes)
Nicole Kidman (To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf)
Meg Ryan (The Human Comedy by William Saroyan)
Susan Sarandon (The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers)
Naomi Watts (Summer by Edith Wharton)
Kate Winslet (Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola)
Audible plans to confirm additional productions through the remainder of 2011, and to
announce and release more titles and star performers for distribution throughout 2012.
“As millions of Audible.com listeners already know, the performance of great books can
be a captivating and deeply involving entertainment experience that often transcends
print books or film,” said Audible.com founder and CEO, Donald Katz. “The audio
interpretations by these profoundly talented stars will not only delight our current
audience, but will also draw huge new audiences to this powerful art form.”
The actors starring in Audible’s new series actively participate in the process of choosing
the books they record, embracing the chance to inhabit a character that has always
fascinated them, show a different side of themselves from what audiences have seen on
camera, or tell a personally beloved story.
“You use a different part of your brain and it keeps your creative juices flowing,” said
Academy Award®-winning actress Kate Winslet, whose performance of Thérèse Raquin
was the first audiobook in the new series to be recorded. “It is challenging, and it’s a
heck of a lot of fun as well. As a listener, being able to tune out and be taken into another
world, an atmosphere, an environment that is being created entirely for you by somebody
else’s voice is really a wonderful, magical thing.”
Audible, which invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, has
been at the forefront of the sustained explosion in downloadable audiobooks that has
transformed the industry as mobile devices have become increasingly popular. This year,
downloads by Audible members are up more than 40% year-over-year, with individual
members downloading an average of more than 18 books over the course of a year. More
than half of current Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading
provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment on the Internet,
offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible’s
mission is to establish literate listening as a core tool for anyone seeking to be more
productive, better informed, or more thoughtfully entertained. Audible content, which
includes more than 100,000 audio programs from more than 1,800 content providers
that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and
newspaper publishers, and business information providers, is downloaded and played
back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady® computer-based and wireless
mobile devices. Audible is also the preeminent provider of spoken-word audio products
for Apple’s iTunes® Store.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section
27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations.
These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among
others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services
and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion,
outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality,
commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange
rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments
and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s
financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent
filings.
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