Yesterday Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook service, announced the launch of Channels, a new audio subscription service that will offer short-form news and original programming, reports The Verge. Audible says their new subscription offering is “the best in short programming” with each channel curated by Audible editors to complement a subscriber’s audiobook listening.

TechCrunch says Audible will offer bite-size audio news from sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harvard Business Review and the Washington Post. Audible lists a variety of topics, programs and sources with programs of varying lengths. A sampling of audio programs and podcasts include:

• 10 Small Ways to Change
• 60 Minutes of Inspiration
• 7 Days of Edgar Allan Poe
• Adulting 101: Real World
• Bios and Memoirs
• Business News
• The Charlie Rose Show
• Conversation Starters for Couples
• Debunked: 13 Myths Busted
• Horoscopes
• The Onion Audio News
• Personal Best for Runners

The Verge says that existing Audible subscribers will get all of the Channels content for free. Currently, Audible subscriptions are $14.95 per month, following a 30-day trial. A monthly subscription to Audible gives subscribers one free audiobook per month and a 30 percent discount on additional books. Standalone subscriptions to Channels will be available for $4.95 a month.

If you aren’t familiar with Audible, the audiobook company was founded by Donald Katz in 1995, and was purchased by Amazon in 2008. Audible offers more than 180,000 audiobooks available ranging from best sellers, new releases and classics to sci-fi, romance and self-help. In 2014, Audible members listened to almost 1.2 billion hours of audiobooks. Audible books can be listened to on most smartphones, tablets and desktop computers

Insider Take:

This is an interesting attempt to grow the audio market, when so many companies (e.g., Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr) are focused on short and long-form video. While not calling their products podcasts, Audible’s new Channels programs are essentially the same. The difference is the length of the recording and the immediacy. News snippets, for example, would have a very short shelf life.

Will this catch on to a new generation of listeners who want to listen to something short and sweet during their daily commute, or is this experiment going to be a bust? We don’t see a demand for short-form audio, but perhaps Audible is trying to create that demand. At the very least, Audible is bringing additional value to its current subscription model, adding value to their existing product without an extra cost. Perhaps that alone will bring enough value to Audible that it is worth the investment to acquire new, short-form audio content.