Amazon's Audible opens first-ever ‘bookless bookstore'
The leading creator and provider of audio storytelling has entered brick and mortar — for a limited time.
Audible, a subsidiary of Amazon, has opened the doors to Audible Story House, located on the Bowery in downtown Manhattan. Designed as a listening lounge and community hub where audio storytelling comes to life, the 6,000-sq.-ft. space offers a physical way to experience audio content beyond digital listening.
Opened through May 31, Story House features six distinct listening spaces across three floors. It will host dozens of events, including live programming from creator panels, fan and creator meetups, hands-on crafting activities and live music concerts. Also on tap is a Harry Potter-themed fan trivia event, a teacher appreciation event in collaboration with Teach for America, Crayola and Reading Rhythms.
The space features a browsing area offering more than 300 audio stories across popular genres. Visitors can browse the titles using physical “story tiles” (tactile representations of audiobooks), similar to browsing in a bookstore. The tiles can be taken to listening stations for out-loud playback or tapped on a smartphone to stream directly through the Audible app, with the full catalog accessible digitally.
The listening stations run the gamut from quick sampling stations with high-performance headphones to the "Dolby Atmos Lounge," a dark, immersive listening environment designed to showcase award-winning Audible Originals and exclusives brought to life with Dolby Atmos sound.
The space also boasts include a studio highlighting Audible's new immersion reading feature, which allows customers with the audiobook and Kindle eBook versions of a title to pair synchronized on-screen text with audiobook narration, to deepen engagement with books. An in-store café from the Brooklyn-based Land to Sea provides a place people to gather and connect.
"We developed Audible Story House by asking a simple question: what does a bookstore look like without any books," said James Finn, Audible's global head of brand and content marketing. "The answer became a place where audio storytelling comes alive, and where people connect, celebrate what they love, and find communities that matter to them. We're giving customers a new way to experience Audible, in a place built for the way listening moves people today."