Amazon-ownedAudible, one of the largest sources of audiobooks, has announced a new partnership with Dolby Labs that will seeDolby Atmoscome to its audiobook collection for the first time. Dolby Atmos is a spatial audio surround sound format that is used for movies and music to create a more immersive, 3D experience that goes beyond traditional stereo sound.
The Dolby Atmos collection includes more than 40 of Audible’s most popular Originals, including titles likeThe Little Mermaid, a new version of the story featuring an underwater soundscape and original music; and the Audible Theater productionMarrow, part of the company’s Emerging Playwright Commission program, which is designed to elevate emerging theatrical voices while increasing access to plays and performances.
Other titles in the series include:
To find these titles, search for “dolby atmos” in the Audible app. To listen to them, you’ll need an Audible membership and the Audible app on anAndroidor iOS mobile device that is Dolby Atmos-enabled.
This isn’t the first time that Audible has dabbled in content that goes beyond standard two-channel stereo. It already has a collection of audiobooks that make use of 3D audio, a similar but not identical version of spatial audio to Dolby Atmos.
Audiobooks are very popular with drivers and an increasing number ofvehicles now come equipped with Dolby Atmos-capable sound systems. Likewise, wireless home speaker company, Sonos, hasjust launched the Era 300, its first speaker designed specifically forDolby Atmos Music. And yet, so far, there’s no word on when Audible’s Dolby Atmos audiobooks will be available outside of the Audible mobile app.
Amazon is no stranger to Dolby Atmos. Many of its movies and shows onAmazon Prime Videoare available in Dolby Atmos, while itsAmazon MusicUnlimited streaming music subscription has one of the largest collections of Dolby Atmos Music tracks.
Now that Audible has announced its first collection of Dolby Atmos titles, it will be interesting to see if Apple follows suit. Apple also has its ownaudiobook collectionand has been a big supporter of Dolby Atmos spatial audio on itsApple Music serviceas well as its wireless AirPod family of headphones and earbuds.
