A year after its India launch, Amazon's subscription-based audiobook service Audible is all set to launch a free audio app 'Audible Suno' in India. This app will offer consumers over 60 original Hindi and English audio shows featuring stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Katrina Kaif.

CNBC-TV18's Priya Sheth caught up with Audible’s founder and chief executive officer, Don Katz and Shailesh Sawlani, country manager for Audible in India to discuss the company's game plan going forward.

"It exceeded our expectations and it is growing very quickly. These are customers who pay a reasonable fee to have hundreds and thousands of titles they can download. They are listening to audiobooks as we speak and it is part of what has made Audible so successful," said Katz.

Katz further added, “Audible Suno is the first time we have gone to a separate service in a country after launching a premium service. Audible Suno is about capturing the brilliance of the Indian storytelling tradition, the greatest stars, the greatest directors, the greatest producers and of course the greatest writers. This is an all-original service, it is all free and I am incredibly proud to be doing it here in India."

Speaking about the revenue model, Sawlani said, "This is something that we are looking to learn from customers in terms of what they are liking, how they are engaging with the service. I think when it comes to monetization, that is something that is many years down the line or something for us to think at a later stage. There have been different business model, different revenue models that have evolved in the digital space."

First Published:Dec 13, 2019 9:55 PM IST