The terminology used around subscriptions and audio business models in particular has become very muddy. The words and phrases are often interchanged incorrectly, frequently leading to misinterpretations and poor decision-making. Here’s a simple guide:

A la carte (or download) services – services and platform will allow the user to download a file at a fixed price for that file. A copy of the file is transmitted fully from the service’s server to reside on the user’s device of choice.

Subscription services – services and platforms which allow users or family groups to pay an agreed monthly/quarterly/annual fee in return for streaming access to content. The user is at liberty to choose files to play at will with no additional payment or obligation to complete a title.

All-you-can-eat – a subscription service normally comprising a vast collection of titles to consume for the user’s regular subscription payment. This has no caps and allows unlimited usage.

Credit based – whilst the service may consist of a huge choice of titles, the user’s payment (usually monthly) is for a credit that they user against a title of their choice each month.

Streaming – streaming is the term describing access to a collection of files which the user can access in return for a payment. No files reside on the user’s device. The file streams from the platform’s server to the user to listen to via their mobile data or wifi connection.

Download to own – the actual file is downloadable to a user’s device where the user is at liberty to play at will.

Revenue share model – typically this remuneration model towards the publisher looks at how many times a file has been listened to proportionately from the total pool of titles available. In effect this mean an audiobook has no fixed value but a fluctuating value based on its popularity within the pool in a given timeframe.

Pay-per-book model – this remuneration model sees the platform pay the publisher against a pre-agreed price for any given title. Often the publisher would grant the platform a discount against this DLP (digital list price).

Time-based model – this relatively new model (which is popular in Scandinavia) sees the publisher remunerated based on the amount of an audiobook that has been consumed. Typically this is based on the number of hours listened to.