Audible Announces Agreement with Creative
WAYNE, N.J. & MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2004--
Creative NOMAD MuVo, MuVo NX, MuVo TX, and NOMAD Jukebox Zen X-tra Portable Audio Players to Support Audible.com Audio Service
Audible, Inc. (OTCBB:ADBL) and Creative Labs (Nasdaq:CREAF) today announced that selected Creative NOMAD(R) MuVo(R) and NOMAD Jukebox Zen portable audio players will become AudibleReady(R) devices, fully compatible with Audible's award-winning audio download service. Audible is the leading provider of digitally delivered spoken word audio, featuring audio editions of the latest best sellers, newspapers, magazines, radio programs, and original shows.
Creative portable audio players will support audiobooks, audio periodicals, public radio programs, language learning, educational programming, and more. NOMAD MuVo, MuVo NX, MuVo TX, and NOMAD Jukebox Zen X-tra portable audio players will be "field upgradable" with a free software download that will make devices compatible with Audible's Internet audio service at audible.com(R).
The selected Creative portable audio players are slated to be fully AudibleReady later this year. In an international co-marketing effort for Audible's flagship AudibleListener membership program, users of compatible NOMAD players will be offered one free month of AudibleListener, Audible's unique membership plan that offers audio programming online that would otherwise cost more than $50 on tape or CD. Users will be able to choose between a package of any two audiobooks from Audible's industry-leading collection of 6,000 titles (regularly $19.95), or one audiobook and one 1-month subscription (regularly $14.95) from Audible's Subscription Center, www.audible.com/subscriptions. The offer can also be co-promoted inside product boxes, in the set-up CD, at retail outlets, and via joint advertising efforts.
"This agreement with Audible enables Creative to expand beyond music playback capabilities on NOMAD portable audio players to include audiobooks," said Lisa O'Malley, senior brand manager for Portable Audio at Creative. "With Audible we will expand the functionality and utility of the NOMAD line in a way that literally speaks to busy professionals on the go, people exercising, or anyone sharing the more than 600 million hours per week that Americans sit in traffic."
"Working with Creative to add to the lineup of portable audio players that support audiobooks is an important step for Audible," said Foy Sperring, senior vice president, Strategic Alliances at Audible, Inc. "This partnership means that owners of compatible Creative portable audio players can have seamless access to our 20,000 audio titles and our AudibleListener membership program. This new agreement represents a major step forward for Audible's AudibleReady device strategy, and it comes at a time of intense growth and increased market penetration for the digital audio category of which Creative is such a large and essential part."
About Audible.com:
Audible.com, recently named the best consumer Web service by CNet.com (April 2003), and one of the "Best of Today's Web" by PC World (August 2002) features daily audio editions of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times -- available on a subscription basis in time for the morning drive to work each day -- as well as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American and Fast Company. The site offers a powerful collection of audiobook best sellers and classics by authors such as Tom Clancy, Stephen King, John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson, the Dalai Lama, David McCullough, Stephen Hawking, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Jane Austen. There are also speeches, lectures, and on-demand radio programs including Marketplace, All Things Considered, Car Talk, Fresh Air and This American Life, and original shows such as RobinWilliams@audible.com. All of the programs at audible.com are available for computer-based playback, burning to audio CD, and on-the-go listening using numerous AudibleReady(TM) portable digital audio players offered by leading consumer electronics and computer manufacturers.
About Creative:
Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for PC users. Famous for its Sound Blaster(R) sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC platform with products like its highly acclaimed NOMAD Jukebox. Creative's innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment -- anytime, anywhere.
About Audible, Inc.:
Audible(R) (www.audible.com(R)) is the Internet's largest, most diverse provider of premium spoken audio services for content download and playback on personal computers, CD or AudibleReady(R) computer-based mobile devices. Audible has more than 34,000 hours of audio programs and 135 content partners that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers. Audible.com is Amazon.com's (www.amazon.com) exclusive provider of spoken word products for downloading or streaming via the Web. Additionally, the Company is strategically aligned with Random House, Inc., to pioneer the first-ever imprint to produce spoken word content specifically suited for digital distribution, Random House Audible. Among the Company's key business partners are Apple Corp., Casio Inc., Handspring, Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, Palm, Inc., Royal Philips Electronics, RealNetworks, Inc., Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments and VoiceAge Corp.
Audible, www.audible.com, Audible Otis, AudibleListener, and AudibleReady are registered trademarks of Audible, Inc. and all are part of the family of Audible, Inc. trademarks.
Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
This press release contains information about Audible, Inc. that is not historical fact and may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements about the company. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, Audible's limited operating history, history of losses, uncertain market for its services, and its inability to license or produce compelling audio content and other risks and uncertainties detailed in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
