Audible's New Royalty Model: Early Access Successes

In November, ACX invited select creators to participate in early access to our new royalty model designed to improve transparency, equity and earning opportunities for creators. We've made a series of short videos explaining the new model and its benefits for your audiobook business. Find them here in the ACX Help Center. Here’s what we’ve learned so far: Early Earnings Wins: Under this new model, Audible expects to pay out a greater percentage of our revenue as royalties to creators. We designed the new model to be more equitable, to expand earning opportunities for all creators and to result in higher earnings for a majority of creators. Under the new model, creators earn a 50 percent royalty rate for exclusive distribution and 30 percent for non-exclusive distribution. Our earliest ACX adopters, who’ve been in the program for four months now, are earning more, seeing an average increase in earnings of around 45 percent compared to the old model, highlighting the potential for new opportunities and rewards for a wider range of content creators. Early data shows that participating creators are earning substantially higher average royalties per unit for credit sales compared to average royalties per unit for all-you-can-listen engagement. While royalty earnings will vary by creator, we’re hopeful that these early earnings wins are representative of the future of the model that we set out to build. Author-Suggested Prices: The early access program includes the highly requested ability for authors to suggest prices for titles within a specified range, giving creators more ways to drive discoverability. Expanded Audience Reach: For the first time, ACX creators earn royalties when listeners engage with their titles in Audible’s all-you-can-listen catalog. Early data shows a 109 percent increase in total unit transactions, an 85 percent increase in paid listening hours and almost double the total number of listeners overall. Cross-Catalog Discovery: Listeners who discover an author through all-you-can-listen content often go on to buy credit titles, showing promise for growing audiences and increasing sales across different types of offerings. While inclusion in Audible’s all-you-can-listen catalog offers great discovery potential, especially for series starters and shorter works, our credit model remains a key part of our business; in fact, our early adopters who keep content in our credit offering are seeing, on average, a 10 percent increase in their royalties per credit use. We curate the all-you-can-listen catalog to balance discovery with maintaining the value of our credit system. Some early adopters have shared their success stories:

L.T. Ryan is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author, renowned for crafting pulse-pounding thrillers that keep readers on the edge of their seats:

"Since ACX rolled out the option to suggest retail prices and opt into the all you can listen catalog. I’ve seen a noticeable lift in my audiobook sales. Being able to adjust pricing and use all-you-can-listen strategically, especially as a lead-in for series starters, has given me a lot more flexibility in how I market and position my catalog. I’ve been experimenting with different pricing strategies across series and making regular updates as I learn what’s working. The ability to make these adjustments brings these titles in line with current goals has already made a difference. Using all-you-can-listen as a low-risk entry point for listeners has been especially helpful for discovery. Having more control over how my books are priced and positioned has helped me treat my audio catalog more like a living, evolving part of the business."

Anna Elliot and Charles Veley are a father-daughter duo that co-write cozy mysteries set in 1940s Britain. They've also penned a series of Sherlockian mysteries, which fans of the beloved sleuth enjoy:

“Joining all-you-can-listen was a game-changer for us! Our listener base exploded—we're talking ten times the growth we had before. But what really excites us is knowing our earnings reflect actual listener engagement, not just clicks. When readers are genuinely hooked on our stories, we all win. The fan mail has been pouring in like never before, and honestly, seeing that direct connection between captivated listeners and our success feels incredible. Anna and I can't recommend this program enough!”

Jillian Dodd is a USA Today and Amazon Top 10 best-selling author. She writes fun binge-able romance series with characters readers and listeners fall in love with:

“Since adding the first books in my series to Audible’s All You Can Listen program in June, I’ve been impressed by how many listeners move on to the next paid installment. So far, it’s proven to be an excellent way to boost exposure for my titles.”

Sara Woodbury is a former anthropologist, turned author, who’s written more than fifty novels set in medieval Wales:

“I'm really happy to be able to share my books with a wider audience, many of whom might not otherwise have heard of my books. It's also great to reach listeners who are careful with their budgets and want to make sure they really like a story before they invest in the series. Now they can! My only problem now is that people can listen faster than I can write!”

What’s Next: We’re continuing to gather data and feedback from the ACX community and early participants. We will be expanding access to additional creators on a rolling basis. If you’re interested, please reach out to earlyaccess@acx.com.