Amazon renames Kindle Unlimited to Kindle+ with more audiobooks

Amazon has renamed Kindle Unlimited to Kindle+ and says the subscription now includes “thousands more audiobooks” at the same $12 monthly price, according to Engadget. The renamed service is already live.

Kindle Unlimited already offered books, comics, magazines and audiobooks. Amazon says Kindle+ retains the same reading material, making the larger audiobook selection the main change beyond the name.

Borrowing remains limited to 20 titles at a time. Amazon also says subscribers’ reading history, bookmarks, notes and saved titles carry over to Kindle+.

A route for self-published audiobooks

Part of the expansion comes from authors who self-publish through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Engadget reports that these authors can upload traditionally produced audiobooks for inclusion in the subscription, giving them another way to distribute their recordings.

Payment terms for participating authors and the exact expanded audiobook catalogue remain unclear. Separately, Amazon is testing a service that generates audiobooks read by a “virtual voice,” Engadget reports. That service remains a test, distinct from the subscription expansion already available to readers.