What a coincidence to see this here! I decided just this week to try to get back into listening to audiobooks, and this morning I was sitting here having my usual angst about the Amazon ecosystem and looking at the options. I can’t help wondering if this is one of those things where I think about an old song I haven’t heard in years and suddenly they’re playing everywhere, making me feel I somehow manifested it, but the truth is that the reason I thought of it in the first place is that they had started playing it everywhere because of a wave of zeitgeist. In this case, I can’t help wondering if something about lockdown or current-events burnout is causing folks to want to switch from podcasts to longer form media less filled with hot takes, which is sort of where I’m at.

Another interesting thing on this topic is that Audible now allows signing up within the iOS app, which I don’t believe was possible before. Im not sure if the reason for that has been reported anywhere, but I assume that means one of a couple of things: They have struck a deal to reduce Apple’s cut (seems unlikely), they’re taking a loss to try to solidify their domination of the market, or maybe some combination of taking a loss plus their new business model which involves a lot of cheap “Amazon Originals” content. There seems to be a rush right now between Spotify and Amazon to become the next Netflix of podcasting (which is to say, a closed, subscription-based ecosystem of exclusive content). I don’t think that’s going to be a great situation, but I don’t get the sense they’re super interested in my opinion on that.