‘Audiblegate’ Update

Last meeting and in a previous blog post we brought up the “Audiblegate” issue — about how audiobook listeners are encouraged by Audible to return books at no cost, even if they’ve listened to it, and the authors lose their royalties. Here is further info about what’s going on. Also, BAIPA is being asked to join the effort by adding our logo to the many others showing our support of this effort. We’ll vote on whether to do so at the May 1 meeting.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the main issues:

The authors on the platform never gave their consent to any costs related to “easy exchange” being deducted from their accounts. And Audible still refuses to:

• disclose the amount that has been subtracted from accounts without right holders’ knowledge or consent
• make the changes necessary to account only for true returns
• apologise, or make any recompense
• explain how rights’ holder commissions are calculated.

Authors and their representative organizations insist that Amazon, which owns Audible, must pay for its unorthodox swap scheme from its own share of the revenue and that any monies found to have been removed from creator accounts must be returned, with appropriate compensation offered.

More information about the campaign can be found here.