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Amazon has renamed Kindle Unlimited as Kindle+ and is expanding the audiobook selection in the subscription. According to Engadget, Amazon told subscribers about the change by email and said the service is live now.
What stays the same
The price is unchanged at $11.99 per month, according to 9to5Mac. Subscribers can still borrow up to 20 titles at a time. Android Authority reports that Amazon quietly updated its website and support documentation, and that the rules of the subscription are the same.
Engadget adds that reading history, bookmarks, notes and saved titles carry over. Digital Trends notes that Kindle+ remains separate from Amazon Prime, and that it works on Kindle devices and in the free Kindle app on phones, tablets, computers and the web.
What is new: audiobooks
Engadget quotes Amazon as promising "thousands more audiobooks." Part of that expansion comes from authors who self-publish through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). They can now put their audiobooks into the subscription, including ones produced traditionally.
The other part is AI narration. ZDNET reports that Amazon's Virtual Voice tool is free to KDP authors and lets them have books narrated by AI at no cost. Digital Trends says new titles enrolled in KDP Select automatically become eligible for Virtual Voice narration, and authors can add it to books they have already published.
Digital Trends also reports that titles made through Audible's Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) are coming too, starting with US subscribers. Engadget describes the Virtual Voice service as being in testing.
ZDNET points out that listening is not new on Kindle. Some Kindle Unlimited ebooks already came with a professionally narrated audiobook, and accessibility tools such as Assistive Reader and VoiceView already read text aloud.
Concerns around AI and pricing
ZDNET's author argues that free AI narration could lead some authors to skip human narrators, which might cost professional narrators work. The outlet suggests listeners who want only human narration look to Audible or Libby. Digital Trends makes the same point about alternatives.