Amazon Wants You To Read an Audiobook

Just like captions on a TV program, Amazon suggests it may want to show captions on Audible.

Picture a smartphone playing an audiobook – then imagine you see small amounts of texts scrolling along. You could read along to the narration, just like reading captions on a TV program.

“If the captioning is applied to those of their works that are licensed for sale through Audible, publishers have expressed concern that this would be unlicensed, and therefore infringing,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.

“True to form, Amazon is refusing to specifically address whether or not there is a rights issue,” he tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “That’s despite Amazon acknowledging in a report in USA Today, which first reported the new captions program, that ‘captions’ would roll out this fall on potentially hundreds of thousands of audiobook titles.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.