Audible Celebrates Canadian Storytelling with Launch of Original Slate

Audible introduces Canadian Audible Originals, comprising premium podcasts, audio series and audiobooks created for Canadians. Conceived specifically for the audio format, these Audible Originals will offer immersive content experiences, featuring a range of celebrated Canadian writers, storytellers, hosts, performers and industry leaders including Yannick Bisson, Sarika Cullis-Suzuki, Catherine Hernandez, Robert J. Sawyer, Tanya Talaga, Jael Richardson, Andrew Pyper and many more. Titles from the inaugural slate release starting today and will continue monthly throughout 2020 and much of 2021, with more projects to be announced and released regularly in the future.

To celebrate this announcement, Audible.ca is offering The Revisionaries with Michele Romanow and True North Heists with Colm Feore free for all Canadians at www.audible.ca until October 27, 2020.

Audible’s Canadian Originals are a celebration of Canadian talent and storytelling in a wide array of genres including business, culture, environment, fiction, food, Sci-Fi, self-development, social affairs, race & identity and true crime. Most will be released as Audible Original Podcasts, an exclusive free-listening benefit for Audible.ca members in addition to their monthly credit. Other Audible.ca member benefits include Editor’s Extra, which offers a best-selling audiobook for free each month, and a 30% discount on all other audiobooks across the full catalogue.

“Audible.ca members already enjoy unlimited access to Audible Original Podcasts, and now our service includes locally produced content by Canadian storytellers that reflects some of the many perspectives, varied identities and stories of this country,” says Georgia Knox, Canada Country Manager, Audible. “Celebrating Canadian voices was our inspiration for the first collection of Canadian Originals and we’re excited to bring this offering to our listeners.”

“We’re thrilled to expand storytelling opportunities for the Canadian creative community into the audio universe and to amplify the work of local, diverse writers, performers and producers. This is an electrifying collection of Canadian-grown audiobooks, drama podcasts and non-fiction podcasts that we are confident our Canadian and global listeners will enjoy,” notes Aurelie de Troyer, Audible’s SVP of Content.

2021 will see the continued rollout of new Canadian Originals, including Imminent Disaster, a sketch comedy series from Canadian author, screenwriter and performer Catherine Hernandez; Oracle and Oracle: The Dreamland Murders, a psycho-thriller audiobook and follow up audio series from Canadian writer Andrew Pyper; The Secret Diaries of Detective Murdoch, produced by Shaftesbury, a 10-part companion to the popular Murdoch Mysteries with the detective himself, Yannick Bisson; and much more.

Audible.ca launched in 2017 as Audible’s first bilingual service, offering Canadians the opportunity to listen to a broad range of audiobooks, Original Content and essential Canadian offerings such as Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse, Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. With the launch of Canadian Originals in 2020, Audible.ca will deliver a heightened listening experience for local audiences and beyond. This immersive content offering will include French translations of Wild Sounds of Canada, Field Guide to Eating in Canada and China White recorded with local Quebec talent, and several Quebec-origin projects are in development.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING

Several related initiatives announced today will further Audible’s objective of celebrating Canadian storytelling and sharing the power of listening:

• Audible will further its mission of elevating the Canadian creative community with a new mentorship and workshop program for Indigenous writers in Canada. More on this inaugural program, designed to elevate and amplify Indigenous stories and storytellers across Canada and around the world, will be announced along with eligibility in the coming months.

• Starting at the end of October, Audible.ca and Metrolinx are collaborating to offer riders in the Greater Toronto Area a way to enjoy more content with GO Transit’s Quiet Zone by Audible, which lets riders scan a QR code to download a title for free.

• As part of the celebration surrounding this Canadian Originals launch, Canadians can test their knowledge and meet some of the talent behind Audible’s new Originals by participating in a special contest in the coming weeks. And to mark Audible.ca’s collaboration with Metrolinx, one of the clues will feature Yannick Bisson of The Secret Diaries of Detective Murdoch as he delivers a clue about the history of GO Transit.

The complete schedule of Canadian Audible Originals, with release dates and details, is available here: audible.ca/audiblecaoriginals.