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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with

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Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm

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Speaker 1: Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety. My guests

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Speaker 1: today are three key leaders of Audible Entertainment, Chief Content

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Speaker 1: Officer Rachel Giazza, Kate Novin, head of creative development for

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Speaker 1: North America, and Pat Shaw, head of content acquisition and Development.

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Speaker 1: Audible is a well known brand to anyone who is

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Speaker 1: a big fan of audiobooks and other audio content, but

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Speaker 1: the company based in Newark, New Jersey, has really been

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Speaker 1: on a role in the past few years. Amid the

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Speaker 1: podcasting boom and the overall growth of the market for

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Speaker 1: audio news and entertainment, Audible these days is going big

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Speaker 1: on original content, with starry names ranging from Michelle Obama

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Speaker 1: to Daniel day Kim to Andrew Garfield and Andrew Scott.

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Speaker 1: This episode of Strictly Business coincides with the publication of

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Speaker 1: a deep dive feature on Audible and the audio boom

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Speaker 1: in the March twenty seventh print edition of Variety, So

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Speaker 1: listen up here and then read up in print or

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Speaker 1: online at Variety dot com. A meaty conversation about the

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Speaker 1: growth of audio only entertainment is coming up right after

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Speaker 1: this break, and we're back with more from Audible Chief

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Speaker 1: Content Officer Rachel Giazza and other leaders of the audio

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Speaker 1: entertainment pioneer Catshaw. Rachel Giazza, and Kate Navin of Audible,

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Speaker 1: thank you all for joining me today for this incredible

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Speaker 1: time of growth for audio entertainment. You Audible is a

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Speaker 1: really uniquely situated company because you have deep roots in

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Speaker 1: this business going back too long before anybody had a

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Speaker 1: smartphone with with a podcast or audio app on it,

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Speaker 1: and so but that positions you. Obviously, you have a

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Speaker 1: lot of expertise, You have an incredible library of content,

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Speaker 1: relationships with creators that are focused on this area. So

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Speaker 1: I really want to dive into that. But I would

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Speaker 1: love to start just by asking those of you that

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Speaker 1: have backgrounds in this what do you think has driven

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Speaker 1: what are the factors that have driven the boom in

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Speaker 1: audio entertainment these last what would we call it six

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Speaker 1: to eight years where it's really taken off to where

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Speaker 1: everybody has a list of their five to ten favorite

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Speaker 1: podcasts that they are just dying for their friends to

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Speaker 1: friends to check out what's driving this? Wow.

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Speaker 2: So I had thought about this sort of in a

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Speaker 2: couple of different perspectives, my own journey into it, and

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Speaker 2: then also and thinking about more broadly, you know how

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Speaker 2: Audible has moved in those last twenty five years.

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Speaker 1: And Rachel, just by way of introduction, Rachel has been

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Speaker 1: with Audible since twenty nineteen and last year was named

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Speaker 1: Chief Content Opposite.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very exciting. So now spending some time thinking about

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Speaker 2: audio globally, which is really exciting as well. I look

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Speaker 2: at it in a couple different ways. One, I think

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Speaker 2: it all starts, which is the quality of the content,

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Speaker 2: the quality of the storytelling. And I think you're starting

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Speaker 2: to see quality. Not that there wasn't always really amazing stories.

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Speaker 2: I mean, one could argue the oldest medium in history

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Speaker 2: is talking and sharing stories, the oral tradition. But you're

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Speaker 2: starting to see a lot of creativity in this space

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Speaker 2: and a lot of amazing stories we told. So you

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Speaker 2: start with Okay, now there's whatever that bug was that

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Speaker 2: got you and brought you into audio. I think that's

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Speaker 2: a fun question for everybody, like what was that listen

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Speaker 2: that caught you? I think about my listen where you're

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Speaker 2: like this is awesome, Like, I love this medium. So

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Speaker 2: the quality of the content is you know, for me

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Speaker 2: at the start of it, but for the consumer there's

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Speaker 2: also a ton of advancement on how you can listen.

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Speaker 2: So when we first started you mentioned this, we actually

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Speaker 2: had our own listening device. It's in the Smithsonian because

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Speaker 2: we actually had to create a device you could download

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Speaker 2: the content to and take it with you because the

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Speaker 2: idea was that this is a great format that you

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Speaker 2: can listen to in a variety of different settings.

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Speaker 1: Was it like an early Kindle kind of?

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Speaker 2: It was like way before that, and so we you know,

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Speaker 2: the company needed a device to deliver audio, had to

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Speaker 2: make one because nothing existed. So it's this like little

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Speaker 2: gray device downloaded. I think maybe you could put like

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Speaker 2: ten books on it. And it was before the iPad,

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Speaker 2: so it was sort of a credit a precursor to

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Speaker 2: all those things. And now you think about it, right,

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Speaker 2: we have smartphones. There's you know, content you can get

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Speaker 2: in your car, there's so many different ways to get it,

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Speaker 2: can get it on your watch, and so the advancement

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Speaker 2: and the availability to get a hold of the content

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Speaker 2: really helps because then you can start to figure out

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Speaker 2: where does this sit in my life right, Like some

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Speaker 2: people are you know, amazing listeners when they're sitting at

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Speaker 2: home and they want that time just process. Lots of

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Speaker 2: people listen in the car, the way to work. People

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Speaker 2: listen to work out, so you can kind of find

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Speaker 2: where does this make sense for me? And because all

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Speaker 2: of those devices are available, it just makes it easier

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Speaker 2: for people to find those moments. So combination of availability

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Speaker 2: and great content, it's kind of.

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Speaker 1: A winning mix.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I'll just add, you know, you know, Rachel

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Speaker 3: talked about ubiquity being one of the big driving forces

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Speaker 3: of it. I think the other part of it is

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Speaker 3: there's an intimacy that comes from audio. When someone's talking

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Speaker 3: in your ear, whether it's a well developed conversation or

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Speaker 3: even an almost dinner table conversation, that's happening, you know,

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Speaker 3: in audio. And so I think that sort of vocal

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Speaker 3: intimacy and that sort of emotional connection, you know, it

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Speaker 3: really kind of speaks to a need today around loneliness

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Speaker 3: and companionship and that type of thing. And so I

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Speaker 3: think that's I think there's an element of audio that

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Speaker 3: is more than just entertainment. It's really about, you know,

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Speaker 3: being a part of somebody's life, and I think that's

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Speaker 3: the part that sort of resonates with me when I

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Speaker 3: talk to a lot of people about their favorite podcast

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Speaker 3: or that type of thing.

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Speaker 4: So I love that you talk about more of a

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Speaker 4: creative anga. I think the technology really has served so

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Speaker 4: much that you can have seamless experiences.

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Speaker 1: From your home to your car to your commute.

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Speaker 4: Thinking about people who commute not in a car, and

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Speaker 4: you can take that audio and as Rachel said, fit

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Speaker 4: it into your life exactly how you engage with it,

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Speaker 4: want to engage that.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of choice in it.

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Speaker 4: I think that's been a huge part of them.

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Speaker 2: And so we have this incredible customer base, some of

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Speaker 2: whom have been with us for decades, right, but we

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Speaker 2: know them really well. So we spend a lot of

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Speaker 2: time thinking about what do our customers want, what do

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Speaker 2: they love, what excites them? And then another sort of

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Speaker 2: core principle to that is what do they like that

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Speaker 2: they don't know they like yet, and what can we

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Speaker 2: create that's going to be kind of that next gateway

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Speaker 2: of something like, oh wow, this new thing is incredible

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Speaker 2: and I never even thought to listen to something like this.

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Speaker 2: So we start with that and that journey with our

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Speaker 2: customers is incredibly important. So whenever we're thinking about content,

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Speaker 2: what to create, what to program, we're always thinking about

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Speaker 2: what's really going to register for customers. And the thing

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Speaker 2: I love most about that is we have a really

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Speaker 2: broad customer set, so we service you know, folks like

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Speaker 2: if you look at our US business, we look a

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Speaker 2: lot like the US, So we have people of all

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Speaker 2: age and demographic and because of that, we have a

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Speaker 2: lot of different customer communities and those communities can be

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Speaker 2: pretty voracious in terms of how they listen. And so

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Speaker 2: watching kind of these communities where you know, Pat said

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Speaker 2: there's this intimate nature of listening, I believe there's also

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Speaker 2: a communal nature of listening.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: You have people that you'll have like a book club

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Speaker 2: with or you'll share various things with. And so we

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Speaker 2: see these, you know, communities in our customer base, and

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Speaker 2: so we can create things that are you know, really expansive,

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Speaker 2: but we can also create things that are really tailor

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Speaker 2: made for different sets of customer so that when you come,

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Speaker 2: you know, we have nine hundred thousand.

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Speaker 1: Titles, we're pretty sure we.

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Speaker 2: Can find a lot of things to entertain you that

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Speaker 2: you know you're going to love, but we have a

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Speaker 2: lot of stuff that you don't know you're going to

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Speaker 2: love yet too, And so staying hyper focused on you know,

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Speaker 2: our founder used to say this, you know, audio is bought,

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Speaker 2: not sold, and so we really have to think about

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Speaker 2: the fact that people are coming because they want high quality,

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Speaker 2: well performed, you know, words that are going to add

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Speaker 2: something to their life. And so that's a big fun

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Speaker 2: foundation of everything that we do is how do we

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Speaker 2: make sure that we're delivering on the promise of great stories,

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Speaker 2: well performed words and creating something where everybody feels like

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Speaker 2: there's something here for me, both that I wanted and

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Speaker 2: also that I didn't know I want. That I think

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Speaker 2: foundation is in everything we do A.

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Speaker 4: Lot about talks to their customers a lot. I've been

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Speaker 4: very impressed with that in my years there, and I

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Speaker 4: just think that deep history of knowledge of what people want.

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Speaker 4: We've tried a lot of things, We've been very successful

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Speaker 4: at a lot of things, maybe less successful at others,

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Speaker 4: and we just we're not learning as we go, and

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Speaker 4: I think that's a very valuable asset in this moment,

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Speaker 4: and we really talk to the customers and learn what's

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Speaker 4: working and what's not I find that very exciting.

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Speaker 1: And how do you do is that like through like

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Speaker 1: traditional focus groups or that you're able to glean a

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Speaker 1: lot from social media and reaction the views.

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Speaker 4: Sure it is, it is focus groups, but it's also

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Speaker 4: more organic than that. We all read the reviews religiously

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Speaker 4: and find a lot of information there. We've invited members

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Speaker 4: to events to engage with them and to hear from

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Speaker 4: them directly. I mean, that's what I mean. Like, it's

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Speaker 4: a really personal relationship that we have with our customers

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Speaker 4: and the content that we create, and that's something that

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Speaker 4: has been developed over the long history a lot of all.

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Speaker 1: Do you find that people will you have it? You know,

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Speaker 1: again the company goes back to the nineties. Will you

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Speaker 1: see titles, you know, production things that were produced you know,

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Speaker 1: twenty years ago that will bubble up if the subject

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Speaker 1: is in the ether or if for just people are

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Speaker 1: searching deep in the library.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think watching sort of you know, having spent

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Speaker 2: some time in other meetia forms, one of the things

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Speaker 2: I love about audio is that it isn't just like

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Speaker 2: there isn't just that premiere window or something is consumed.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot of evergreen a lot of people are

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Speaker 2: listening to things in the library, and there's so many

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Speaker 2: opportunities to present content either if there's a relevant moment

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Speaker 2: what you see, you know, if there's a new film

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Speaker 2: or TV show, we see a lot of great listening

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Speaker 2: around that. And so the library that we have is

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Speaker 2: so important because actually a good percentage of our listening

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Speaker 2: is actually happening on library content, which we consider anything

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Speaker 2: that's over a year old. And you see those trends,

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Speaker 2: like if you look at our top ten listening, I'd

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Speaker 2: say at least half of them are from things that

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Speaker 2: are older than a year. And so you just see

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Speaker 2: that pattern repeat it.

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Speaker 1: And I want to talk about a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about the granular development, but before I do that, let

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Speaker 1: me just ask you to kind of set the stage

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Speaker 1: for the business. I don't do you disclose your subscribe

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Speaker 1: We don't.

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Speaker 2: But the way that we, you know, like to talk

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Speaker 2: about it is obviously we have, uh, you know, been

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Speaker 2: in the business for a very long time, pretty vast audiences, uh,

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Speaker 2: and do like to remind people that we very much

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Speaker 2: do look like the audiences in the countries that we're in, right, so,

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Speaker 2: you know, very big categories of age very big categories

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Speaker 2: you know, for me, I'm thinking about all of our

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Speaker 2: different type of content, like the content that we're bringing

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Speaker 1: Is so different.

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Speaker 2: And then we have a lot of different ways customers

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Speaker 2: can access content. So obviously most people probably know us

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Speaker 2: well our membership, and as part of that membership, obviously

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Speaker 2: you get content. You know, we have an all you

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Speaker 2: also buy our content al Khart, which is a rich

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Speaker 2: part of what we sell to. So people are you know,

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Speaker 2: connecting with Audible in a ton of different ways across

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Speaker 2: you know, nine hundred thousand different titles.

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Speaker 1: Don't swipe away. We'll be right back after a break

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Speaker 1: for monetization, and we're back with more from Audibles. Rachel Kiazza,

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Speaker 1: Kate Novin, and Pat Shaw. Oh, I wanted to ask you.

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Speaker 1: I know, just as a consumer, Amazon Music has gotten

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Speaker 1: really aggressive with the app and notifications has that been

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Speaker 1: a boon or audible with Amazon Music. Amazon really putting

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Speaker 1: a lot of energy into Amazon Music recommendations, reaching out

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Speaker 1: to people like me that they know are already voracious

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Speaker 1: consumers of podcasts.

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Speaker 2: I definitely think our ability to connect across Amazon is

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Speaker 2: pretty exciting. So one hundred percent, we're able to work

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Speaker 2: with Amazon Music, and we find that some of our

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Speaker 2: content makes a lot of sense to put in front

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Speaker 2: of Amazon Music customers to discover. We recently did a

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Speaker 2: piece with Wondering, So sometimes we like to collaborate when

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Speaker 2: we feel like this could be a great audience fit

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Speaker 2: on both sides. We did it with leon Nefak. It

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Speaker 2: was called Think Twice and it was a story about

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Speaker 2: Michael Jackson. It was incredibly well done, and that was

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Speaker 2: a piece that we distributed in both places, and we

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Speaker 2: broader audience. But we also have opportunities obviously when we

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Speaker 2: work with the various book groups at Amazon, there's co

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Speaker 2: promotional opportunities, and then of course we're able to put

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Speaker 2: our content in front of Amazon's entire customer base and

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Speaker 2: that allows us and just a view of them, and

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Speaker 2: that's obviously really helpful both in support of you know,

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Speaker 2: working with creators who have really incredible, you know projects

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Speaker 2: coming out, but also you know, at.

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Speaker 1: Our foundation, we work really hard to.

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Speaker 2: Help elevate voices that should be heard, and so having

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Speaker 2: that ability to put that in content in front of

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Speaker 2: so many people is really important to us. And you know,

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Speaker 2: now we're doing a lot to expand into new marketplaces.

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Speaker 2: So we have Brazil with our audiobook offering there, which

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Speaker 2: is our newest launch.

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Speaker 1: Pat and Rachel, you both had experience working at Spotify

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Speaker 1: before you came to Audible. Obviously Spotify big glow, you know,

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Speaker 1: big big engine with global reach. How would you say

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Speaker 1: it compares to you know, having that broad survey of

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Speaker 1: what people are listening to music in countries around the world.

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Speaker 1: How does that compare to what you learn about your

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Speaker 1: audience on Audible.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll start you know, I think we start with

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Speaker 3: our customers first and think about what their tastes and

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Speaker 3: preferences and likes are and kind of build up from that.

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Speaker 3: And so you know, access into making content available generally

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Speaker 3: is oftentimes not really the way that customers will actually

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Speaker 3: sort of engage with content. We want them to really

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Speaker 3: sort of discover this content with us promoting them behind it.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, and also there's so when we're thinking about

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Speaker 2: that customer journey, we think about it from like day zero, obviously,

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Speaker 2: and we have incredible teams of people who are doing

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Speaker 2: different parts of that equation, different parts of at that work. So,

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Speaker 2: for example, we have a team of people who works

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Speaker 2: across all of our programming and they're thinking about that

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Speaker 2: whole catalog of content that we have and how to

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Speaker 2: put things together and actually deliver on that. As you know,

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Speaker 2: recommendations are such a big part of it too, and

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Speaker 2: so having that community availability where you know, we've noticed

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Speaker 2: that people like to follow their favorite author, people like

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Speaker 2: to follow their favorite narrator, people like to be able

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Speaker 2: to make those natural discoveries, and you like to discover

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Speaker 2: something on your own. But there's also people that you

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Speaker 2: have like a strong taste affinity for and you know

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Speaker 2: that when they recommend something, you're going to really like

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Speaker 2: that thing. And so we have editors who've been you know,

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Speaker 2: part of the family for a long time and who

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Speaker 2: have different specialties, and so we find that people are

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Speaker 2: you know, consuming the content on our blogs where we'll

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Speaker 2: start to go a little bit deeper on a title.

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Speaker 2: There's a even the way the you know, you discover

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Speaker 2: content in that app, Like we have these detail pages

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Speaker 2: where even before you hit play, you can read all

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Speaker 2: about the title. I think when you look at audio,

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Speaker 2: and we mentioned this a little earlier on, you know,

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Speaker 2: there is a lot more what i'd call long tail listening,

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Speaker 2: right so when you look at how people listen, when

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Speaker 2: you look at our sector, you know, the top listening

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Speaker 2: is still you know, just a one part of our

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Speaker 2: customer base. It's really federated, so you see that people

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Speaker 2: are listening to a lot of different things all the time.

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Speaker 2: So it's not necessarily like, oh, this is you know,

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Speaker 2: the top thing and twenty percent of the customers you're

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Speaker 2: listening to this. You actually see that there's a huge

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Speaker 2: variety of listening, both to things that are just came

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Speaker 2: out but also things that are you know, have been

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Speaker 2: out for a decade or two years. And that was

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Speaker 2: a discovery that I made when I got to Audible

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Speaker 2: that I thought was incredible.

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Speaker 1: As a business. That's that just warms the heart of

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Speaker 1: you know, because it's not an opening weekend kind of

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Speaker 1: business so much. What would you say though, what I

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Speaker 1: mean all that said, what are your metrics for success

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Speaker 1: for a new title? Is it the level of engagement,

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Speaker 1: the length of time that people spend with the title?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I would say it's listening, starts, customer reviews.

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Speaker 3: Are we delivering a delightful customer experience at the end

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Speaker 3: of the day, And that often is our sort of

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Speaker 3: pattern for help us make better content decisions going forward.

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Speaker 3: It gives us tremendous amounts of insights on where tastes

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Speaker 3: for evolving and where might be a natural adjacency to

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Speaker 3: take a customer from a bistry title to a thriller title,

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Speaker 3: et cetera. So we have a tremendous programming team here

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Speaker 3: that are composed of subject matter experts in a lot

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Speaker 3: of different genres, and they do the hard work of

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Speaker 3: curating titles so that we get the right title in

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Speaker 3: front of the right person at the right time. And

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Speaker 3: so that's one way we saw the discovery problem beyond

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Speaker 3: you know, the tech and the algorithms, but that sort

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Speaker 3: of deep domain experience is ultimately what is going to

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Speaker 3: create that satisfaction and what has created that customer satisfaction today.

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Speaker 4: And success is going to look different in genres, right

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Speaker 4: because customers use it differently. Obviously, what is a successful

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Speaker 4: sleep story is going to look very different than what

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Speaker 4: is a successful nonfiction story. Right, So there's north Stars

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Speaker 4: in there, and obviously how our customers are reacting to

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Speaker 4: it big one, but there's a lot of other things

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Speaker 4: that we look at depending on the genre.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk a little more specifically about development. Do you

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Speaker 1: kind of block out your thinking in years in quarters?

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Speaker 1: How do you kind of get your arms around all

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Speaker 1: the potential that you can do. We it's a great question.

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Speaker 4: We look at time because it's an evolving strategy for

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Speaker 4: us right now. Obviously, with the boom, we've wanted to

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Speaker 4: keep content fresh, We've wanted to keep it releasing. We

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Speaker 4: have learned through that process and now being a lot

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Speaker 4: more stategic about when we release and how we plan.

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Speaker 4: We want to make sure that we're not cannibalizing ourselves.

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Speaker 1: We want to make.

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Speaker 4: Sure that we are meeting the needs of the consumer.

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Speaker 4: I like to talk about January, right. We know that

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Speaker 4: people love fitness and well being and that is an

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Speaker 4: energy exactly. Let's make sure that we have a lot

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Speaker 4: of choices for them in that window. So we are

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Speaker 4: starting to look at a calendar more that way, what

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Speaker 4: are the kind of things that people are engaged with

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Speaker 4: over the summer, What are people going to be looking

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Speaker 4: to this fall in particular, and what's our answer to that.

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Speaker 4: So I would say we're looking about a year out generally.

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Speaker 4: That's very general. And then obviously there's some big titles

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Speaker 4: that are in development a lot longer and we sort

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Speaker 4: of have bigger launches planned around them, and we handle

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Speaker 4: those in a very bespoke way.

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Speaker 1: What is your selling point you're working with absolute a

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Speaker 1: list talent, what is your selling point to talent in

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Speaker 1: a world of where there's a lot of podcast production

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Speaker 1: companies or you know, audio production companies vuying for creative

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Speaker 1: talent is what is the selling point? What's audible selling point?

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Speaker 4: I think the heart of it is we match expertise.

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Speaker 4: We've been doing this a long time. We have the

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Speaker 4: audience knowledge, we've learned so much. We're going to match

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Speaker 4: that with your creative energy. We're going to let you

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Speaker 4: come in with an idea that's exciting to you. Let's

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Speaker 4: talk about the right way to tell it at audio.

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Speaker 4: But we really do put a lot of agency in

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Speaker 4: the hands of the creators. We trust it would be

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Speaker 4: silly not to. We're very collaborative in that way. Things

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Speaker 4: like Rachel just said, where there aren't the structures of format,

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Speaker 4: we don't have to fit any sort of box. I

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Speaker 4: think that's really exciting for creatives.

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Speaker 1: Right you must have an act break here.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, none of that.

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Speaker 4: Our listeners are used to long listens and that's something

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Speaker 4: especially for writers that they're really excited by because they

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Speaker 4: can write the story. An episode can be twenty minutes

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Speaker 4: if the story of that episode is twenty minutes, and

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Speaker 4: the next one can be forty five because we need

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Speaker 4: that amount of time to sort of breathe in the episode,

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Speaker 4: and that is very exciting. Of course, a still our

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Speaker 4: high quality, our high bar on the production values.

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Speaker 1: I think that.

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Speaker 4: Track record speaks for itself.

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Speaker 1: The cast that we.

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Speaker 4: Get to pull in on, the on the fiction stuff

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Speaker 4: and the nonfiction, really high pedigree of the people who

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Speaker 4: have worked with us. And honestly, we've got the audience right.

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Speaker 4: We're not a business model trying to find one, and

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Speaker 4: I think right now that's a very attractive proposition.

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Speaker 1: Right as there are there is so much competition.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and I'll just add that you know, we

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Speaker 3: have the ability to work with folks from beginning to end.

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Speaker 3: You know, there are not a lot a lot of

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Speaker 3: new A lot of folks are coming to the media

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Speaker 3: for the first time, and our creative team, our partnership

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Speaker 3: team helps them navigate that process everything from the one

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Speaker 3: O one of creating in audio, tricking taking out from

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Speaker 3: a dramaturgical approach to you know, adapting a film and

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Speaker 3: TV title to to audio. We're coming to it for

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Speaker 3: the first time, you know, altogether, and then navigating an

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Speaker 3: organization and a process and a marketing process to take

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Speaker 3: it all the way to customers. Right, So that like

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Speaker 3: that whole process has been built over the last few

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Speaker 3: years and we're now sort of in a very sort

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Speaker 3: of good position to replicate that, you know, as we

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Speaker 3: expand globally.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you've also got a number of a number of titles,

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Speaker 1: audible originals and titles that are being developed into other

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Speaker 1: forms of media TV films, I believe is that is

439
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: that a goal for you to get to bring those

440
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: bring those into new windows and new formats.

441
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:39,959
Speaker 3: I would say it's an opportunity for us. You know,

442
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:43,440
Speaker 3: we we don't start there. We start with the written word.

443
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 3: And what a great audio project is going to be,

444
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 3: but certain stories, certain audiences will come to that story

445
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:53,520
Speaker 3: in different formats, and so if we have an opportunity

446
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,400
Speaker 3: to adapt it for film and TV, we will. It's

447
00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 3: actually a really great opportunity for creators who start in

448
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:03,600
Speaker 3: audio to kind of be able to work in a

449
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:05,919
Speaker 3: different medium as well. And so we have all the

450
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 3: resources of Amazon behind us, and so this is an

451
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 3: opportunity for us to sort of then figure out how

452
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 3: do we cross promote and how do we create The

453
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 3: entry point of that story might be the av portion

454
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 3: of that of that of that implementation of that format,

455
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:22,679
Speaker 3: and then that will then probably lead them back to

456
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,120
Speaker 3: audio to audible to listen to the original as well.

457
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,440
Speaker 3: So we see it as sort of an opportunity set

458
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:35,200
Speaker 3: but also cross promotion and creating opportunities for creators as well.

459
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 1: It's clear that you are working with MGM, which is

460
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,600
Speaker 1: now also under the Amazon umbrella, and it's clear that

461
00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 1: there are some opportunities that have come up for some

462
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 1: of your titles to go into different formats. Is that

463
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:49,120
Speaker 1: a is that a real priority for you? And how

464
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 1: do you see that that that larger audible MGM relationship growing?

465
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:56,160
Speaker 1: Is that a priority to work more closely with them.

466
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,320
Speaker 4: I think it's as Pat's had a really great opportunity.

467
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,280
Speaker 4: We're an audio company that is first, but it's important

468
00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 4: to our creators and it is important to the longevity

469
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:08,080
Speaker 4: of a project that you pour so much heart and

470
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 4: soul in I think about Prophecy, for example, Randy McKinnon,

471
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:14,800
Speaker 4: when he brought that to Simpton Street and to Audible

472
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:19,400
Speaker 4: and q Code, our partners on it, his passion for it,

473
00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,320
Speaker 4: how much time he's spent thinking how personal that story

474
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:26,160
Speaker 4: was to him. I'm really happy that he's now able

475
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,520
Speaker 4: to take that story into the next format and he

476
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,600
Speaker 4: can develop it with Amazon MGM, because I do know

477
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:34,240
Speaker 4: how important it is to him, and I think that

478
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:36,880
Speaker 4: that's also a great example of when it works.

479
00:26:37,119 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 1: That is such a.

480
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 4: Strong audio piece. The sound design is incredible, the storytelling

481
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:44,919
Speaker 4: is so clear, the cast is unbelievable, and I also

482
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 4: know that in the adaptation it is going to be epic.

483
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:49,800
Speaker 4: It can really be blown out in a new way,

484
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 4: and I think it's a great example of what the

485
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,160
Speaker 4: power of great stories can actually do.

486
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:58,480
Speaker 1: Do you also work with other outside studios, if Sony

487
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: Pictures Just Down the Street or Warner Brothers Acrosstown. If

488
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 1: they call and say, oh my god, we really we

489
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: see you know, franchise potential in this, you will work

490
00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:08,640
Speaker 1: with them as well, or are you focused on trying

491
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: to do things through the MGM channel.

492
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:13,520
Speaker 4: We absolutely can work with other partners. Obviously, there's a

493
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 4: lot of benefits to working closely with our partners here

494
00:27:17,560 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 4: in Amazon, including benefits of protecting the story and making

495
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:23,160
Speaker 4: sure that there's a strategic roll out and that all

496
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 4: of the pieces are talking to each other. But obviously,

497
00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 4: if if there is a great home for it elsewhere,

498
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 4: that's important.

499
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:32,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just it reflects sort of the you know,

500
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,159
Speaker 3: the changing programming priorities of the different studios and so

501
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 3: if if if Amazon MGM is not the right home

502
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 3: for it for whatever reason, then we definitely wanted to live,

503
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:46,840
Speaker 3: you know, outside and come to market.

504
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review

505
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: at Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music. We love to hear

506
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,680
Speaker 1: from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign

507
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:04,560
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508
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,840
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509
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