面对Spotify在有声书市场带来的新竞争，Audible正转向人工智能及其他技术，以提升收听体验。周四，这家亚马逊旗下公司推出三项新功能，让听众能够探索书中人物、参与互动式故事，并查看书中提及的地标或地点的更多影像和补充信息。
Facing new competition in the audiobook market from Spotify, Audible is turning to AI and other technology to enhance the listening experience. On Thursday, the Amazon-owned company introduced three new features that will allow listeners to explore a book’s characters, engage in interactive stories, and view additional imagery and bonus information about landmarks or places mentioned in the book.
如果你觉得最后这项功能很适合用来突出莎拉·J·马斯笔下精灵国度普瑞希安不同法院的所在地，那我要让你失望了。现阶段，该功能将率先仅用于一部作品，即希恩·奎克的《文化导师：分49个短章讲述历史、艺术与哲学的现代指南》。该书通过短小课程讲授诗歌、艺术、建筑、地理等知识，旨在降低理解文化的门槛。
If you’re thinking the last would be great for highlighting the different courts’ locations in Sarah J. Maas’ faerie realm of Prythian, I must disappoint you. The feature will first arrive in just one title for now, “The Cultural Tutor: A Modern Guide to History, Art and Philosophy in 49 Short Chapters” by Sheehan Quirke, which focuses on making culture more accessible by teaching about poetry, art, architecture, geography, and more in short lessons.
另外两项新功能——人物指南和互动式故事——初期覆盖的范围也同样相当有限。
The other new features, a character guide and interactive stories, are also starting off fairly small.
随着Audible于10月1日发行其Audible Original《德古拉》，人物指南将帮助听众理清书中的角色阵容，而收听有声书时做到这一点比阅读时更困难。（“Audible Originals”标签不一定意味着内容是原创的，因为《德古拉》并非原创作品。这一标签表示该有声书、回忆录、独家剧集、播客或表演由Audible自有工作室制作。）
With Audible’s October 1 release of its Audible Original “Dracula,” the character guide will help listeners keep track of the cast of characters in the book, something that’s harder to do when listening than when reading. (The Audible Originals label doesn’t necessarily signal that the content is original, as “Dracula” is not. It means Audible’s own studios have produced the audiobook, memoir, exclusive series, podcast, or performance.)
在《德古拉》中，人物指南会在播放器页面上实时显示当前说话者，避免听众迷失方向。它还将提供无剧透的人物卡片，展示配音者及其个人简介。Audible表示，用户日后将能够与该指南互动，随着故事展开就相关内容提出问题。
In “Dracula,” the character guide will display who’s speaking in real time directly on the player page so listeners don’t get lost. It will also provide spoiler-free character cards, which showcase the narrator behind the voice and their bio. Audible says users will later be able to interact with the guide to ask questions about the story as it unfolds.
其他将支持“角色指南”的有声书包括乔治·奥威尔《一九八四》的 Audible 原创有声书，以及即将上线、由作家本杰明·珀西和执行制作人安迪·威尔（《挽救计划》和《火星救援》的作者）共同打造的 Audible 原创有声书《系外行星》。
Other audiobooks gaining access to the character guide include the Audible Original of George Orwell’s “1984” and the forthcoming Audible Original “Exoplanet” from writer Benjamin Percy and executive producer Andy Weir (author of “Project Hail Mary” and “The Martian”).
第三项新功能“互动故事”也将应用于《德古拉》和《系外行星》。这项功能旨在通过附加体验，让听众直接参与故事并与书中人物互动。该功能由生成式人工智能驱动，使听众能够在新推出的 Audible 原创有声书《德古拉》中与德古拉的仆人伦菲尔德互动。
A third feature, interactive stories, will also come to “Dracula” and “Exoplanet.”Here, the idea is to bring the listener into the story through a bonus experience in which they interact with a book’s character. Powered by generative AI, the feature lets listeners interact with Dracula’s servant, Renfield, in the new Audible Original.
人物会率先开口，为听众设定身份、目标和任务利害关系，随后听众便可以用自己的话作出回应。人物会根据听众所说的话实时作出反应。
The character will speak first, giving the listener a role, goal, and stakes, and the listener then responds in their own words. The character will react to what’s said in real time.
Audible 表示，互动故事的创作人员参与了其基础框架的构建，因此这些故事始终以书中正在发生的情节为依据。对于《德古拉》这样的作品，互动故事还要忠实于原作者的创作构想。
Audible says the creators are involved in the foundations of the interactive stories, so the stories stay grounded in what’s happening in the book. Or, in the case of something like “Dracula,” the stories are meant to stay faithful to the original creator’s vision.
这些变化出现在有声书听众数量和收入持续增长的背景下，2025年美国有声书销售额达到24.3亿美元。需求增长可以归因于多个因素：从智能手机的普及，到人们日益繁忙的日程，使得坐下来读书都成了一种奢侈体验。TikTok 上的“BookTok”社群也可能推动了阅读的大众化，这一点体现在最受欢迎的有声书类型中——它们与 BookTok 感兴趣的小说、科幻、惊悚以及当然还有浪漫奇幻作品高度重合。
The changes come as audiobook listenership and revenue grow, with U.S. sales reaching $2.43 billion in 2025. The increased demand can be chalked up to several factors, from the proliferation of the smartphone to people’s increasingly busy schedules that make sitting down to read a book feel like a luxury. One could probably also credit TikTok’s “BookTok” community for pushing reading more into the mainstream — something that’s reflected in the most popular audiobook genres, which overlap with BookTok’s interests in fiction, sci-fi, thrillers, and, of course, romantasy.
Audible首席内容官拉切尔·吉亚扎在谈及此次功能上线时表示：“这些新功能让听众能够以前所未有的方式走进故事，也标志着我们近30年来推动音频叙事发展的最新一步。我们很期待在现有功能的基础上继续创新，并与创作者紧密合作，因为我们深知，花更多时间沉浸在故事中，对每一位帮助故事鲜活呈现的人都有益。”公司表示，这些功能目前正在测试中，并计划未来逐步推广至更多作品。
“These new features invite listeners into a story in ways that simply weren’t possible before, marking the latest step in our nearly 30-year journey to push audio storytelling forward,” said Audible’s Chief Content Officer Rachel Ghiazza in a statement about the launch. “We’re excited to build on these while working hand in hand with creators, because we know that more time spent with stories benefits everyone who helps bring them to life.”The company says the features are currently in a beta test, and the plan is to expand to more titles over time.