Sound Up: Audible 2022 Highlights

This year, we dropped surprise content and signed thrilling production deals. Our hubs around the world all fully reopened for hybrid work. And our innovations at every level continue to add value to the listening experience for our customers. Here are some highlights.

We dreamed up original content across languages and cultures

In 2022 we continued to produce award-winning Audible Originals and release them around the world. We thrilled fans by surprise-dropping the newest installment of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, The Sandman: Act III. We hit a creative high note with a new series, Origins, an eight-part audio experience that complements our Words + Music series by delving into the genesis of iconic, current musical artists like Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Flying Lotus, and more. We announced an exclusive multi-year, multi-project deal with Higher Ground, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s media company. The deal’s forthcoming slate of Audible Originals will reflect the companies’ shared mission to tell meaningful and entertaining stories that elevate diverse voices and experiences.

Audible’s groundbreaking content garnered some of the world’s top awards. Maejor Frequency, from renowned music producer and performer Maejor, won Adweek’s Best Podcast of the Year Award. We took home several Australian Podcast Awards, including one for The Greatest Menace, which also won two Walkley Awards, and one for Pillow Talk, which also took home the internationally prestigious Rose d’Or in the audio entertainment category. Punk in Translation: LatinX Origins won two Latin Podcast Awards. Deepest Dive: The Search for MH370 received Best Factual Podcast at the Association of International Broadcasting awards in London, and we received three British Podcast Awards. Audible Original podcasts also won major awards in Japan, India, Italy, and Germany. And in the US, the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year went to Project Hail Mary, an Audible Studios production by The Martian author Andy Weir.

Our content also scored big with fans around the globe. In Italy, the crime-thriller series Diabolik, based on a popular comic, gained praise from critics and listeners alike, and in Germany the brother-sister comedy podcast Kebukus was warum wie war was a huge hit. In India, Little Things: Jab Dhruv Met Kavya, an audio spin-off of a cult favorite Netflix show, became the most-listened Original in its first 90 days, and in Japan, Audible secured exclusive rights to produce eleven titles from internationally adored author Haruki Murakami for the first time in audio in Japanese.

We were thrilled to re-open the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City for live performances in January, starting with Eugene O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey into Night and continuing through the year with a slate of productions that are available to customers around the world for anytime listening. Keeping with our core commitment to amplify underrepresented voices, we announced our fourth cohort of playwrights selected for Audible’s Emerging Playwrights Fund, the second cohort of Audible’s Indigenous Writers’ Circle in Canada, and our sponsorship of the UK’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.

And you’ve heard of #BookTok… well, now there’s #AudibleTok for going behind the scenes with the artists we all love!

We were honored as a place for visionaries and changemakers

We celebrated 25 years of driving the audio entertainment revolution—and were recognized by Fast Company as among the 100 best workplaces for innovators. The Hollywood Reporter named our EVP, Head of US Content Rachel Ghiazza and Head of Audible Studios Zola Mashariki to its inaugural Podcast Power List. And Audible Founder and Executive Chairman Don Katz was recognized for his thought leadership in media and social justice, named PEN America’s Business Visionary Honoree and awarded Gotham Film & Media Institute’s Innovator Tribute.

Customer obsession continued to inspire our tech innovations

We expanded our “all you can listen” option to all our marketplaces, giving listeners around the world more ways to stream and access great content. Our tech and product teams integrated Alexa voice controls into the Audible app, added nearly 60 original short stories for the Audible Stories Skill on Alexa, and brought one-tap streaming for Audible on the Apple watch. Our customer support and UX teams worked together to improve accessibility in Audible’s help center pages, and to create a core team of specialists who can advise customers who use assistive technology. And customers can now keep up with their favorite authors with Audible’s “follow” feature.

We made a positive impact in cities around the globe

Newark Working Kitchens (NWK), Audible’s nationally recognized Covid-19 emergency response initiative that garnered Digiday’s Greater Good for Hunger Award, will continue sustaining Newark’s restaurant economy into the future as NWK Delivers, a lunch-delivery service for the city’s returning office employees that has already subsidized over 14,000 meals from local restaurants for residents in need. In May we launched phase one of the Newark Artist Collaboration (NAC), unveiling large-scale public art installations from 20 artists and artist collaboratives in Audible’s headquarters and the surrounding downtown neighborhood. And across Cambridge and Newark, we’ve collectively expanded our work with interns and scholars.

Newark Venture Partners (NVP) hit a major milestone, having invested $53 million into 101 companies since launch, 56% of which have female founders or founders of color. Audible signed a $1M deal with NVP portfolio company 1Huddle, giving Newark-based community organizations and Audible employees access to 1Huddle’s onboarding, corporate learning and development content. In March, hundreds of Newark residents attended our events for Mayor Ras Baraka’s political memoir, The Book of Baraka.

Audible employees around the world have enjoyed being able to volunteer in person once again. Among the highlights, our team in Berlin launched a mentorship program and workshops to support local students, most of whom are migrants, to build their language, literacy, and overall communication skills. Employees collected and delivered food and supplies for Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Audible’s UK hub held its third learning course at Feltham Young Offenders Institute, providing opportunities for young adults to learn about podcast creation, develop their interview and writing skills, and produce content for broadcast on the UK’s National Prison Radio. In Japan, Audible joined up with the Japan Braille Library to offer its patrons free access to audio titles, and our Australian team worked with one of the country’s leading food rescue organizations to prepare nutritious meals for people in need. At the annual Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ) gala, Audible’s legal team was recognized for their work providing pro bono legal services to low-income Newarkers.

Life @Audible: connected and thriving

We redesigned multiple hubs around the world, completing work on our headquarters renovation, bringing in stunning works from local artists and expanding our wellness spaces—including an interactive place for mindfulness and movement and more private areas for nursing parents. We also continued to unite locally and globally through our Hub+Home hybrid workplace model, and reinforced our connection with talent and entertainment in our new Los Angeles hub.

Our colleagues shared how they’ve grown, how they find meaning in their work, what inspires them and the true impact their work has on our listeners; and we heard from our leaders, in global content, tech, finance and growth, and impact work, to name a few, with more to come.

As ever, we’re deeply honored to have spent the year finding new ways to bring joy and inspiration to millions of listeners around the world. We can’t wait to see what next year holds for our customers, creators, colleagues and communities!