Kobo adds audiobooks along with an Audible-like subscription
It costs $10 a month and can get you any title from Kobo's catalogue.
Kobo is finally getting into the audiobooks biz. The Canadian company has added audiobooks to its offerings and already has an extensive catalogue sell, including bestsellers like the Harry Potter series. Even better, it has launched $10-per-month Audible-like subscription service, which sounds like a good deal if you regularly purchase audiobooks. The service gives you credits you can use to get any title from Kobo.com, even if its list price costs more than what you paid. You get a free 30-day trial period, so you can check out how it works before committing. But if you know you can go through a single audiobook real fast, you can also just straight up buy a three-pack credit for $30 and keep up to 24 credits in your subscription account.
You can find any audiobook and ebook you buy in one place within Kobo's iOS and Android apps. Once you've chosen what to listen to, the apps' built-in player will give you the power to choose your preferred narration speed. You can also see how much time you have left and program it to switch off after a certain amount of time if you tend to listen to your books in bed.
Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn says the company decided to get into audiobooks, since "We have more books than time, always. Audiobooks let [the company's] readers fit the books they love into more parts of their day." In case you can't find what you're looking for in Kobo's current catalogue, don't worry: the e-book maker promises to add more titles every week. But if browsing through what's available gets a bit overwhelming, you can always check out the personalized recommendations based on your previous e-book purchases. In addition to the US, Kobo's audiobooks subscription offering is now also available in Canada ($13/mo), the UK (£6.99/mo), Australia ($13/mo) and New Zealand ($14/mo).
