Why Audible Is Courting Celebrities for Its Original Podcast Slate

way back in so it's a first generation dot com. Really, it's two decades before the recent podcasting room, when its original mission was to redefine audiobooks and audio entertainment. Here we are more than twenty years later. Amazon bought Audible in two thousand eight, and today Audible hosts more than etcetera and seventy five thousand audio programs from audiobook publishers, top Hollywood talent, broadcasters, magazine newspaper publishers, and other partners. Rachel,

Welcome to Strictly Business. Hi, Todd, Thank you so much for having me. Uh, it's really wonderful to be here, and that was a great overview of the company. Excited to go into a little bit more depth on those things as well. Yeah, it's a little bit meta here. It's a podcast about podcasting. UM. So to kick things off, Rachel, tell us about your role at Audibly. You've been with

the company about three years now. Yep, about three years. Um. Time has flown by, but right now I currently oversee as you mentioned, the team's responsible for US and global content initiatives. A few interesting things to highlight around the team's organization that focuses on a trifecta of work that's really built to facilitate our ability to connect content to

the right audiences. So we have a consumer focused content team that is really working on understanding cultural trends, our customers needs and programming and curating that content to help aid in the discovery experience for our customers. They're also giving direct feedback in terms of what content we might

want to be creating and acquiring. Then we have our Audible Studios team, which is overseen by one of our newest leaders, u Zola Mashariki, and this is a group of extremely talented creatives who are responsible for the creation of our Audible originals. We also have content marketing as you mentioned, and this is a really interesting area of distinction for Audible and that we're really passionate about our marketing and really creating marketing that is as big as

the story. So it's uh not infrequent that you'll see billboards highlighting our content. But we're also working through doing some really unique partnerships that really helped create a deeper

immersion and connection to our content. So for example, with Sandman, which was a big release for us this year, we did a partnership with Bing Bang, the tattoo artist, and we actually created tattoos around the characters within Sandman and then created an environment where customer fans could come and get these tattoos by some of the best tattoo artists in the world. And we saw that that really helped, I think, create new experiences around the content and really

creates engaging ways to bring fans closer that. Of course, we also have you know, the deal and partnership teams as well as strategy planning and operations, UM, and we all come together collectively to think about that end to end experience of how can we find and create amazing content and get that to the right audience. Okay, great, well thanks for that overview, UM, And you know, to start off, your audible is a little bit different from

the other podcast production studios and networks out there. Right, most podcasts are available free ad supported basis when you're starting to see subscriptions. But Audible's model for originals and other audio content it's geared around it's already geared around subscriptions. All the cards sell through. You don't really have an advertising model, right, So what does that mean in terms of how Audible develops and produces content and acquires content

differently versus some of the other players out there. Yeah, it's super interesting question, um, And in fact, we do have uh an ad supported tier in India, so I'll talk a little bit about where you know, we're testing different models, but you're absolutely right we approach content differently than other services. And I think some of the core of this is that there tends to be a polarity polarity in audio where something's either an audio book or

a podcast. But in our case, the distinction for us is that we're really thinking about audio as a sector and so certainly we have audio books and podcasts, but there's so so many things that are in between, and things that were super excited about that really explore the entire space of audio, and in order to do that right, UM, we need to have models that really allow us to

reach customers in different ways. You know, we have titles there are thirty hours long and episodes that are fifteen minutes. And so what we have is UM offerings for the consumers so that they can really kind of enter into our offering and how it makes sense for them. So our primary offering is Plus, which is really driven by

transaction and our credits. UM. This is really the right model for somebody who really likes to get those big, you know, new bestsellers, somebody who really wanted Sandman when

it first came out. UM. But we also have a PLUS catalog which was launched in August of twenty nineteen, and this is a elimitate to listening catalog that includes exclusive podcasts, audio books, a lot of our originals are in there, and that really it aids in discovery and allows people to maybe try parts of audio that they haven't experienced before, or perhaps somebody new to audio can go there and really get a good breath of entertainment.

So we are kind of reaching audiences in different ways. And as I alluded to, UM in India, for example, we have a ad supported tier Um, so we're always looking at ways to test different models to reach audiences. I think, as you opened the conversation today, obviously there's a lot of really exciting things happening in the audio space, and so for us, it's important that we always continue

to grow and evolved. As you know, the world around us involves, so you can expect us to continue to try different things, particularly as it relates to reaching audiences with the right content good. So when it comes to originals and exclusive acquisitions in a nutshew, what is the organizing principle? Right? What? What is it that makes an Audible original awesome? So that is another wonderful question. Um, you know, I think a lot of people still really

know Audible for being a third party audiobook distribute. Yeah, exactly, But the truth is we've actually been creating original content since our inception. Our initial move into audiobooks was really more as a way of creating meaningful supply of high quality storytelling to build out a put for that portfolio

of content that customers would find valuable. As you mentioned, you know, we were doing subscriptions well before that was a norm, and so it was really important that we had all of these high quality things that people would be willing to pay a subscription for. UH and audiobooks was just a great way to build that supply. But we've also been doing podcasts before they were even called podcasts, so we have some early works that we've done with

the likes of Ricky Jarvais and Robin Williams. Um Our current original program really kicked off in with a handful of originals, and we've really been rapidly scaling since then. I mentioned a little bit about Audible Plus before, but with the launch of Audible Plus, it really blew open the front door and has allowed us to create a space for a lot of innovation in audio and a lot of scale in terms of what we can provide

in original content. You know, Audible has been around for a really long time, UM, but one of the things that I think is amazing to talk about in terms of the throughput of Audible's history is that it's always been about high quality, highly produced, strong narrative stories that are married with professional performances, and you see that today like that is continued throughout our entire twenty six year journey and certainly something that we're really focused on moving

into the future. As well. So you know, the current content uh content boom around podcast People are listening to this more than over any podcast as a format, as an idea. It's been around for a while, but it hit this hockey stick, you know, you can maybe trace it to Serial right where that really was the zeitgeisty moment that kicked people under our drive this, you know. So we're seeing just a ton of new podcasts initiatives,

investments from Spotify and Apple and others. I mean, is that is that a rising tide that has lifted your your about? Yeah? I often refer to the audio renaissance that we're in um and certainly it's been really great in a couple of different ways. Certainly for customers who I think there's just a more of a conversation around audio,

more people trying it every single day. It's also been really great for creators who are now connecting to the format and really understanding, you know, what the format can be and how that format can really aid in their creative process. For us, it's really cemented our vision for the last twenty six years, and it's allowed us to continue to create new things. But we're still in a space where it's just the beginning, and there's a lot

of room for innovation. There's a lot of room for continued experimentation from what we're creating an audio, but also how customers are able to access and experience audio. So for me, this is just the beginning, even though we've already been doing it for for such a long time. There's just so many new ways that it's just getting more and more exciting. So, backing up to something you said earlier, you do have an AD supported tier in India, Um are you looking to to breaden that out into

the US or other markets? We're certainly looking at ways to continue to bring new customers to audio and open the funnel. One of the things I've been thinking about, just in reflection for this conversation and others, is a little bit about my history and background. So I've been working in media for a long time, uh, and a lot of my earlier time and media I was really working on helping bring people to consume content that they've already consumed in less friction ways. So for example, at Yahoo,

it was about moving people from print to digital. At Viacom, it was about moving people from linear to O T T. Spotify was really about moving people from downloads to streaming. One of the things I think is really interesting in the case of Audible, in the case of audio and where we're creating, is that we're creating a new medium, and there's so many people that have this opportunity to

explore the space and new ways. So of course we have such an amazing breath of customers who have been audiobook listeners for so much time and people who have been listening to podcasts for a lot of time, but we're really able to introduce new things to them. A good example of this um is one of our projects, The Coldest Case by James Patterson. This is a performance that was led by Aaron Paul and brought him back

together with his Breaking Bad co star Kristin Ritter. It was also a thirty person ensemble cast, and this is new to a lot of our listeners who maybe are listening to more traditional single narration audio books, and we saw them really engage in this. We also saw them expand kind of their awareness of what the audio format can be, and I think that's just beginning and there's so much space for that, both from incorporating people who have maybe seen themselves more as podcasters and more as

audio book listeners. There's a lot of convergence in between those things. Yeah, interesting point. Now, you mentioned Aaron Paul, Um, you mentioned Neil Gaiman and The and the Sandman. Uh, You've got two seasons out now, and I guess there's a third one in the words yes, yes, coming out. Okay, um,

stay tuned, UM. But it does seem, you know, just looking at your slate, you've got a lot of high profile personalities in the mix, and you've um in the last over the last year, you've been really ramping up deals, exclusive deals with Hollywood talent. One of the most recent ones you've done a deal with Carrie Washington and her uh Simpson Street Production Company for three scripted originals. Maybe

just tell us what's what's behind this strategy? I mean, is it you're looking for name brand folks from the traditional entertainment world to find new audiences inaudible, or maybe you can just walk us through the thinking on this. Yeah, what we've really been focused on and what we care the most about is great talent, great talent that has

extraordinary storytelling. We have been to your point, doing deals of the last couple of years with high profile, high impact talent like Carrie Washington or Laura Dern or Kenya Barris, but we work with the vast audience of talent, So we're working with renowned authors, award writing actors, as you mentioned, household celebrities, but we're equally focused on emerging talent who

are on the custom breaking out. We have what we liken to a department that's really focused on who are the people who are telling things that need to be heard and how do we help elevate those voices. So we're really home to differentiated content across all types of categories, voices and backgrounds, and that it is something that really excites us and also again hits that throughput of something that we've really been focused on for many, many years.

Certainly for me we're in this role, it's it's exciting because I'm working with talent that really does hit all of these different groups. And when you unleash that type of talent into innovation, it's incredible to start to see how it evolves and how each person brings their own part to the program, And that to me is part of this puzzle that makes so much sense and makes

it such an interesting space at the moment. Now, you mentioned a couple of names, but let me just wrap off the list of folks you're working with Elizabeth Banks Yo Yo Maa, Lena Wade, Queen Latifa. You mentioned Laura During and Kenya Barriss O'Brien with Team Cocoa, Steph Curry, Charlemagne and God Kevin Hart, uh Spring Held Company, which is Lebron James Media Firm, And it's uh, it's just kind of a who's who in a way against my question here is what is your pitch to these folks

when um you go to them, what what is Audible offering? Um? You know, to try to persuade them to come to do an original production with the Audible as opposed to some other platform or competitor. Well, as you know, creativities very personal and it really does come from the source. So our underlying goal for any of the creators we are working with is to empower them and support them and encourage them to take risks push boundaries of what

storytelling can be. So many creators have so much opportunity. There's certainly things they are well known for, but there's also areas of passion and things that they're working through and the goal is really to create The goal is to create this environment where they feel that support and they have that ability. We are working on extrable shame, long term relationships that really create an environment of creativity, flexibility,

and the focus on creating something really special. I think the exciting thing for them is that this is a place where there's a lot of opportunity. You know, we don't have to hit certain numerical benchmarks, we don't have to create to a format, we don't have to worry about the expense of creating a set and creating the world and making that true to the story. It really opens up a tremendous amount of creative freedom. M Um, I mean, are you competing on the level of uh,

you know, economics. In other words, are you do you have a different um financial proposition for talent as opposed to uh some of your competitors. Maybe, I mean, are you offering more profit sharing or revenue sharing UM or is it that creative canvas that's that's the main draw I don't think it would ever just be one thing.

Everybody has, you know, they're different focus points in their different needs, and I think we are bespoke and so part of it is really being able to meet creators where they are to help facilitate the needs that that particular creator has. So the conversation starts with, hey, what is your vision for what you can do in an audio only environment? Exactly? And then we also work with creators for such a long period of time that allows us to evolve together. Broadway Video is a perfect example

of this. As you know, we've been doing a lot of interesting things in the comedy space in particular, and they've been a partner of ours for quite some time. And in the early days they were really interested in working in audio, but they didn't necessarily have all of

the audio production expertise and all of those things. So for that partnership we were able to work with them, help them with the development process and transitioning to audio, help with production, and over time they've evolved to a point where they are creating amazing audio, they have their own in house team, and in fact they're now working

with us and producing some of our content. So, for example, they produced The Coldest Case, which has allowed them to do what they do best, obviously comedy, but also expand their interest points get them working in other spaces that are interesting to them. No one really works within the confines of a box, and so it's about opening up

that box and meeting creators where they are. And certain things are going to be more important to various creators, and it's that flexibility to meet them where they are and that partnership to allow us to grow together and that trust within each other. That's the most meaningful part creativity needs to have that, you know, that support in that freedom. Yeah, you mentioned Broadway. Video of one of the fun series that came out on Audible was Hot White Ice, this uh sort of lgbt Q plus action

comedy starring Boone Yang directed by Alan coming Um. You all listening on the podcast can look it up. But it falls stealing the sperm from a sperm bank confidential classified sperm bank of the most uh what high i Q people in the world. I don't know. It's a It's a really really crazy story and was one of our one of our picks for the year last year.

There was also There's Hit Job with Keithie Palmer and Pete David's in um is comedy in particular, you know a genre that you've focused on as something that's resonating definitely. The scripted spaces exciting and comedy is definitely a point of distinction. Our customers love it and it does tend to fit to the audio format really really well. And maybe this is a sign of the times. You know, we've talked about meeting customers needs. Um. People needed to escape, relax,

maybe change their mood. So we saw that the comedy portfolio really met them in a time where that felt like a really resonant thing. We also have noticed a few things obviously as we've been working in the space, which is the cast and the comedy company behind the content do play key factors into people selecting the content that they're gonna consume. But there's also areas of particular interest UM at these these times, family dynamics workplace environmental stuff.

Obviously with hit Job, that was a really fun take on that politics, governmental themes, UM and I guess not odd but interestingly enough, people are looking for stuff that takes place in the past or the future, not so much now. And you mentioned hot White Heist, and I think that was such a great title for the moment, and we really saw that one pop. You know, I

mentioned our broad audience. We have so many different people connecting in the audio space, but that one really resonated with um that eighteen to thirty four year old group podcast how can you go wrong? With Bowen Yang and Alan Cummins. But it's such a great way and we

did some really interesting stuff with that one. We have a partnership with the Rebeca Festival and we screened that at the festival and obviously transitioning to screening audio with some fun, and we actually did that by having a cast come out and we did a big drag event which was an incredible amount of fun and such a great way to introduce that title. And it was really a fun experience to be there and watch people connect and see how that came to life. Now. Um, yeah,

comedy seems to be doing well for you. You also, and maybe this is um you know, in more of the traditional podcast vain, but you've got a bunch of unscripted stuff from from some high profile folks. Elusive Thanks has My Body my podcast talking about women's sexuality and issues in that Deep Up Chopra. Kevin Hard has this saying about the decision overcoming today's BS for tomorrow's sixth US. I mean is this UM, you know, kind of filling out the lineup with the kinds of things that do

well in the free podcast world. Yeah, we are definitely investing in both scripted and unscripted projects. We are always optimizing to respond to our customers needs, trends, things that we're seeing. I mentioned, you know, our consumer content team that's looking at this stuff, living and breathing it. But there's some areas that were currently you really focused on in doubling down in UM. You mentioned Elizabeth Banks Well

beings the area that we're really interested in. It's kind of this concept of you but better, and there's so many different voices and a myriad of experts that come

together in a collection that really helped people connect. So, for example, in a Sleep that's coming out right now, we have a music producer Major who's produced a number of really big hits and he's really into the frequency of music and how that frequency can really support you create better sleep and lower stress by neureal beats, and so we have a project called Major Frequency coming out that explores that, joins Elizabeth Banks, joins some upcoming projects

by Mel Robbins, who's an Audible fan favorite, and we have deepak Obra who went outside of his own box to create Living outside the Box where typically he's been focused on mindfulness, but in this project, he really connected mindfulness to the body and he worked with experts from you know, yoga space and other places to talk about

how to facilitate those things. So we have a collection of content that we're focused on in the well being space that brings all of these different elements together and really creates a robust area where if you want to meditate, we have that for you. If you want some self dev we have that for you. We have Kevin Hart doing self dev and then we have all of these really unique, unique areas in between to explore, yeah, the

well being stuff and self improvement. I mean maybe that's kind of in the pandemic moment as well, right, that's people looking to We definitely saw those trends as well. Um, so we are able with audio to respond to needs and trends quicker than some other formats, and so we endeavor to do that as we're thinking about our slates, and we have many other focus areas in addition to well being. Cinematic storytelling is a big one. I think heart racing at of your seat much listen. These tend

to appeal pretty broadly. They hit a lot of different customer groups. Some exciting projects to highlight for the coming months and year. We have a project with Travis Beecham called Impact Winter, which is post apocto ecliptic vampire thrillers set in the United Kingdom and it focuses on the storyline of two sisters who were reckoning with this force

and working to save humanity. It's also coming with an amazing production element where it creates this three D audio experience and it really makes you feel like you're immersed in the story. I was listening as I was walking the dog and there were a few times where I had to kind of turn around and make sure nobody was behind me. Um. It was a really fun way to explore. We also have the Miranda Obsession coming. Rachel bras in Hand is performing and executive producing and super

excited about it. It's a drama inspired by the story of Hollywood enigma Miranda Grosvenor. And these showcase a little bit of the variety in this concept of creating cinema cinema storytelling. Yeah, this idea of like movies for Your Years. I mean, some people are acting like this is a

brand new thing. But this goes back to the d n a of of of audiobooks, right, I mean, the movie for Your Years has been been around for a couple of decades, certainly has and you see us well into franchises that support that with things like The Sandman and um, a lot of fun works we've been doing with folks like Andy Weir. There's a lot of space there and the appetite from customers is voracious. And I was going to ask you, yeah about this sand Man,

Why did that s and Nate so well? And did you have data that showed this was going to be This was on the number one spot on the New York Times Best Seller Audio Fiction list the summer. Yeah, and that was for the second installment as well, which is even more exciting. We hit for both the first installment in as you mentioned, and the second installment last year. In this I think goes back to the conversation we've been having about creators. Neil Gaiman was very involved. His

support and guidance was there through the entire inception. Of course, the adaptation by Dirk Mag's was really important, and then the cast to bring it to life with folks like James McAvoy. This is a really big effort. You have this comic book that so many people have connected to for so long in their lives that seeing it come to life in other forms you have to be able to manage through staying true to that story in which people have already constructed in their heads and help them

take it further. And this is a really great area to showcase how audio can do that for people. And working with Dirk and Neil really got it to a place where this was something that represented how he had seen this and had how he had built this in his mind. Of course, it also didn't hurt that it was layered with really amazing sound elements, production music elements that really brought the whole picture of it together and

created this immersive experience. And then I mentioned before our marketing with this title, we did a lot of crew innovative marketing and things that helped connect people and mentioned the bag Bang experience. But we're also at Comic Con we are working with the talent to have them talk about their experience and how it connects, connecting directly with fans. These things helped expand the world and give fans that connection earlier on, and it helped that there was a

pretty big installed fan base right for the Sandman graphics. Definitely. Yeah. So when it when it comes to the you know, green lighting a project, right, what is the you know what pushes it over the top? Is it you know you're confident that you know this will serve as you know, an acquisition vehicle for a certain number of people, um or you know you're projecting certain uh sell through rate

or something. What is it? Is it gut instinct? Do you model out you know, sales performance or customer acquisition targets that kind of thing. So it has to start with that, and that's where folks from the Audible Studios team who live and bring breathe creativity play such an important role. And marrying that with the customer teams that know what customers are looking for and having that dialogue has to start with gut and excitement from a creative

standpoint and understanding what's coming before it's even come. That's where you hit the right inflection points and cultural moments. But there's also content that we create that meets a bunch of different needs. So I've talked about us scaling our original content. We're certainly scaling in big ways, and we're not acquiring content all to do the same job. Some content we do acquire because we think it has

great acquisition awareness potential. We think it can bring audio to new customers or engage current customers in different ways. But we also create things that we know are going to be fan favorites where there's just an insatiable appetite. I talked a little bit about, you know, our cinema,

but there's other areas that always resonate. We have stuff like take me away, feel good fiction and romance and rom com Our customers devour these things, so we're creating in that space and supporting things that our customers really enjoy. And then we're also innovating, so we're looking for things that are going to break the ground, break the mold, and do new stuff. We have a title that we're working on right now called Breakthrough. It's the first of

its kind audio singing competition. It's in partnership with at Will Media and the Chain Smokers, and it's just something that hasn't been done before, and we're bringing it to life and letting it grow and evolve and seeing what can happen when we allow just testing and flexibility and trying new stuff. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about new formats and genres and and there's one, definitely a

couple others were excited about. We have some more we call them more toistic programs, things that we think do a good job of highlighting what the space can be. One of those being the theater space. Theaters obviously are amazing storytellers and there's an opportunity to bring these stories to life and audio. Not everyone can go to Broadway or the West End to see a theater program, and so we can work with play rights to help create

projects that can reach broader audiences. Currently, we have a six week live performance happening at Audible when in a Lane theater. So we do have a theater UH in New York where we put on live performances. And we have Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey in tonight, which will also be available in audio. And this is an exciting classic that we've done a vibrant and timely update and it's being interpreted by Tony Award nominated Robert O'Hare we've

also commissioned new works from twenty five playwrights UH. Ten of those come from our Emerging Playwrights Fund, which is specifically focused on finding emerging voices in the theater space and helping them grow their audience and platform. But we've also released more than forty theatrical projects to a global audience. It's a space that is exciting for us and is also exciting for our customers, and so exciting for creators for finding new avenues to reach their audiences. Let me

shift the conversation here. You know, one trend that we've seen in UM original audio content is UM stuff getting adapted for TV and film. UM. So what is the audible thinking about that? What's on your slate of UM intellectual property that that are in the hopper maybe for you know, UM an adaptation UM uh with with some kind of partner, maybe Prime Video right or Amazon Studios, which is corporate cousin for you. Definitely we've been doing some things with that ongoing over the last bit, but

certainly more to come. We know there are some titles that just organically translate to screen adaptations, and there's some exciting opportunities for creators and that since we were just talking about the theater program, I could highlight a project. We have Evil Eye, which came out through the theater program, Up up start playwright who created in the audio space just wonderfully. UM. It's a project that's about a woman living in the US talking to her family in India,

and it's a bit of a thriller. It's there's a lot of suspense, but it also talks about family and it utilized the audio space in such a magnetic way it really popped for our audiences. It was then picked up by Blumhouse, UH turned into a film and then um distributed by Amazon. And for me, that's such a great connection to how the medium can really elevate those voices they're coming and breathe life into it. Another exciting one that is similar but also creates new ways to

think about it. We have a project called When You Finish Saving the World with Jesse Eisenberg, another fan favorite. UH. It falls into the space of not a podcast, not an audio book, but a play for your ears. And the exciting thing about that is it was also an option for film. It's premiering at Sundance just next week, and the thing that's super interesting about it is it's not a straight adaptation. What he's done is use it as an opportunity to further explore some of the characters

and build concrete or deeper storyline. So actually you can watch the film without have listened, or listened without have watched the film, but the two things actually go to really really well together and help expand and build the world around it. Very interesting. Um So, uh, we're just about a time I wanted to ask you, you know, before you joined audible, um in twenty nineteen, right, Um,

you spent a little over five years and Spotify. What what was your experience at Spotify and you know, how did that lead into what you're doing in audible. Yeah? I think you left Spotify before they really um, really plowed into the podcast strategy. Yeah, it was earlier. It's

uh six years. It's such an exciting, fruitful experience that allowed me to really explore a lot of different spaces, understand the music space, early thoughts on audio space as well, and as I mentioned before, for me, it was a continuation on that journey of how can you help people connect to entertainment that they love, but do it in that less frictioned way, and that to me is always an exciting way to think about that emergence of technology

and content, and that's a space that for me personally has always been very exciting. In transitioning to Audible, there's a couple of things that have really stood out and made the experience really interesting at a high level. Obviously, introducing this new medium to customers like that is an area of entertainment that I just feel truly honored to be able to work on and lead as part of

the industry. I don't think you get those many that many experiences to do that in your career, and so I reflect on it and feel very lucky that I get to do that. The other thing is really working with such a wide variety of creators. It's so inspiring to go from a meeting with one of the best play of rights in the world, to somebody who's really prolific in the holiday Hollywood space, to an up and

coming talent that has been really wonderful experience. And it's all cemented by connecting to a lot of the people principles that drive Audible, and I'd be amiss not to mention them, But we're based in Newark, New Jersey, and a big part of that location is about giving back

to the communities in which we serve. And so mostly what we've talked about today is a lot of the content that we're bringing out, But as much as we focus on the content, we also focus on how we can create impact and how we can be about more than what we create, and we're always building ways to build those connections. So, for example, I have a project with ros Baraka coming out, who, if you're unfamiliar, is the current mayor of Newark, and he's a super interesting

guy and has an amazing background. And listening to him talk about the fact that he's building this agent for change and doing things in and around the Newark community that grow that being able to support that, and being able to support those stories and bring them to life and be about the community, there's something just so incredibly valuable in that as part of being in the content space, and I am thrilled to be a part of it and thrilled to be a part of a company that

that's just part of our day and day and part of our DNA. Who are you going back to the Spotify um question, I mean, who do you see as your your biggest competitor. I mean, it's it Spotify as an Apple, is it a number of players, It's everybody creating an entertainment. It's there's so much out there, as you know, from the film to TV to audio. You really have to cut through the noise to create something that hits a customer. You really have to bring value

to their life. If you're not bringing value to them, it's not going to stick. And our day and date is to think about how can we create things that bring our creatives, visions and imaginations to life while bringing real value to our customers. And that is in competition with me not listening to anything while I do the dishes or walk the dog. We're finding something that makes that experience better and enhances that experience. We really think about our create our way to make that impact with

our customers, and that's what's most important to us. Okay, um, Rachel Giatta, thank you so much for joining us. One parting question, what is your favorite Audible original? And I know that's like picking a favorite child or something, but for me, I'm looking forward to the next in and some Um, I don't know if you have a particular

favorite or a set of favorites. Well, of course they're all my favorites, um, but there are a couple of areas that for just fan fan me pop very excited about the well being space for so uh it's an area that just personal passion. UM. I have my first waves of Raiky, so I can be a Reiky practitioner. I do a lot in the health and wellness atter. I think there's a lot of things happening in that space.

Certainly COVID has made people more aware, but there's a lot to unpack about how we could live better lives and how we can learn things. The simple act of putting on your headset at night and listening to some by Maarial audio while you disconnect, there's something life changing about that and being able to work in that that area is a particular personal passion of mine. Mhm. Excellent, Well, Rachel,

thank you so much. Our guest today has been Rachel Gyatta at Audible and thank you for tuning in today and come back to listen to more strictly business podcasts from right. Thank you very much Todd for having me. Did the script begin think det