Audible and Samsung Announce Technology and Co-Marketing Program to Integrate Digital Audiobooks onto Samsung Digital Audio Players

WAYNE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 2004--

Current and Future Samsung Portable Digital Audio Players Will Support Audible's Audio Content, Subscription Services, and Technology

“Our agreement with valued partner Samsung represents a step forward in our plans to make the Audible platform ubiquitous in the mobile device arena”

Audible, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBL), the leading provider of digitally delivered spoken word audio, today announced that a hard disk (HDD) model of Samsung portable digital audio players will begin to ship as AudibleReady(R) starting in the United States later in the third quarter of 2004. Samsung's HDD portable digital audio players will be fully compatible with audible.com's(R) award-winning audio download service. The companies will make future announcements timed to coincide with the availability of AudibleReady Samsung portable audio players. Samsung currently markets the Napster and yepp lines of portable digital audio devices.

Samsung HDD audio players support audiobooks, audio editions of newspapers and magazines, public radio programs, language instruction, educational programming, and the more than 48,000 hours of audio content available for download from audible.com(R). All AudibleReady Samsung portable audio players will ship with in-box brochures promoting the audible.com service, Audible's software on in-box CD-ROMs, audio samples from audible.com pre-loaded on devices, and on-box branding designed to communicate the benefits of using a Samsung device as a player capable of playing more than 300 of Audible's audiobooks at one time, with room to spare.

All users of AudibleReady Samsung portable audio players will be offered a free trial of Audible's flat-rate AudibleListener membership program, Audible's unique membership plan offering audio that would otherwise cost more than $50 on cassette or CD. Users will be able to choose between a package of any two audiobooks from Audible's industry-leading collection of more than 6,000 titles (regularly $19.95), or one audiobook and one 1-month subscription (regularly $14.95) from Audible's Subscription Center, www.audible.com/subscriptions.

"Audible's platform for delivering valuable audiobooks and other spoken audio to Samsung portable audio players increases the value of our devices and makes good on the commitment we've made to provide our customers with not only the best device, but the best services to complement our device," said Simon Chang, Director, Samsung yepp Business Team. "Audible content will add to the market appeal of our products."

"Our agreement with valued partner Samsung represents a step forward in our plans to make the Audible platform ubiquitous in the mobile device arena" said Matthew Fine, senior vice president, Enterprise Development at Audible, Inc. "Based on reactions by users of other AudibleReady devices, we expect that Samsung's AudibleReady portable device owners will enjoy being able to supplement their portable music listening with a vast array of entertaining, informative, and otherwise diverting spoken audio titles."

About Audible.com:

Audible.com, recently named the best consumer Web service by CNet.com, and one of the "Best of Today's Web" by PC World features daily audio editions of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times -- available on a subscription basis in time for the morning drive to work each day -- as well as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, and Fast Company. The site offers a powerful collection of audiobook best sellers and classics by authors such as Tom Clancy, Stephen King, John Grisham, Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, the Dalai Lama, David McCullough, Stephen Hawking, William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, and Jane Austen. There are also speeches, lectures, and on-demand radio programs including Marketplace, All Things Considered, Car Talk, Fresh Air, and This American Life, and original shows such as [e-mail]. All of the programs at audible.com are available for computer-based playback, burning to audio CD, and on-the-go listening using numerous AudibleReady(R) portable digital audio players offered by leading consumer electronics and computer manufacturers.

About Samsung:

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media, and digital convergence technologies with 2003 parent company sales of US$36.4 billion and net income of US$5.0 billion. Employing approximately 88,000 people in 89 offices in 46 countries, the company consists of six main business units: Corporate Technology Operations, Digital Appliance Business, Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business, and Telecommunication Network Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is the world's largest producer of color monitors, color TVs, memory chips, TFT-LCDs, and VCRs. For more information, visit www.samsung.com.

About Audible, Inc.:

Audible(R) (www.audible.com(R)) is the Internet's leading premium spoken audio source. Content from Audible is downloaded and played back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady(R) computer-based mobile devices. Audible has 48,000 hours of audio programs from more than 165 content partners that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible.com is Amazon.com's and the Apple iTunes Music Store's pre-eminent provider of spoken word products for downloading or streaming via the Web. Additionally, the Company is strategically aligned with Random House, Inc. in the first-ever imprint to produce spoken word content specifically suited for digital distribution, Random House Audible. Among the Company's key business relationships are Apple Corp., Creative Labs, Gateway, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, palmOne, Inc., PhatNoise Inc., RealNetworks, Inc., Rio Audio, Roxio, Inc., Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments Inc., and VoiceAge Corporation.

Audible, www.audible.com, AudibleListener, and AudibleReady are registered trademarks of Audible, Inc. and all are part of the family of Audible, Inc. trademarks.

Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release contains information about Audible, Inc. that is not historical fact and may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements about the company. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in any forward-looking statements as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, Audible's limited operating history, history of losses, uncertain market for its services, and its inability to license or produce compelling audio content and other risks and uncertainties detailed in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.