Amazon has bought the spoken word download outfit Audible, a sign that the etailer's digital ambitions go further than just music. The Audible catalogue reportedly includes 80,000 downloads from 520 content partners, and includes audio versions of books, newspapers and magazines, plus some TV and radio programmes.
The deal is perhaps most interesting because Audible have an ongoing relationship with iTunes, a crucial relationship given that the audio book industry is still attached to DRM and that partnership enables Audible to provide iPod compatible downloads.
Amazon, of course, are potentially a big competitor to iTunes in the download space, though Apple's monopoly on iPod compatible DRMed files is potentially a major block to Amazon's ambitions in the space.
On the music side, of course, they have overcome that problem by persuading the record companies to forgo DRM, enabling them to sell music in the other iPod compatible format, MP3. The Audible deal may see Amazon persuade the audio book world to adopt a similar DRM-free strategy, thus overcoming Apple's competitive advantage in that area too.