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Apple Press Release

SAN FRANCISCO -- October 16, 2003 -- Audible, Inc. and Apple today announced that more than 20,000 hours of audiobooks and other spoken word programs are now available for download exclusively from Apple's iTunes Music Store. Through iTunes, Mac and Windows customers can preview and download audio editions of best-selling books, magazines, radio programs and original shows, manage audio content alongside their music collection, and take their entire audio library with them for listening anywhere with the market-leading iPod digital music player.

"With the addition of Audible's exclusive content to iTunes, now Mac and Windows customers can download audiobooks and music from one integrated online music store," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "The unbeatable combination of the iTunes digital jukebox software, iTunes Music Store, and iPod digital music player allows users to seamlessly buy, manage and transfer their entire collection of audiobooks onto their iPod for listening anywhere."

"As our customers can attest, audiobooks&emdash;and spoken word programming in general&emdash;can change peoples' lives for the better," said Donald Katz, chairman and CEO, Audible, Inc. "Audible's award-winning information and entertainment audio deserves to be marketed in an integrated way alongside music. With this iTunes Music Store announcement today, we have reached an important strategic milestone for our company."

Audible.com is the exclusive provider of spoken word audio to the iTunes Music Store and is the leading provider of digitally delivered spoken word audio. More than 5,000 spoken word audio titles from Audible can now be purchased from the iTunes Music Store, including content ranging from new audiobook bestsellers like "Bleachers" by John Grisham and "The Teeth of the Tiger" by Tom Clancy to classics like "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain and the iTunes exclusive science fiction audiobook, "Whipping Mek," an original story by Brian Herbert and bestselling novelist Kevin J. Anderson that bridges the Legends of Dune trilogy novels "The Butlerian Jihad" and "The Machine Crusade." The Audible collection also includes speeches, lectures, language lessons, audio editions of periodicals such as Forbes and the Scientific American, as well as the best of public radio programs such as Fresh Air, Car Talk and This American Life.

Newly released audiobooks and other new spoken audio content will be added to the iTunes Music Store every week. All Audible content available from the iTunes Music Store can be burned onto an unlimited number of CDs for personal use, listened to on an unlimited number of iPods, and played on up to three Macintosh or Windows PC computers. Apple's new 40GB iPod can hold over 800 full length audiobooks from Audible or up to 10,000 CD-quality songs in a stunning enclosure that is lighter and thinner than two CDs.

Audible (www.audible.com) is the Internet's largest, most diverse provider of premium spoken audio services for content download and playback on personal computers, CD or AudibleReady computer-based mobile devices. Audible has more than 34,000 hours of audio programs and 135 content partners that include leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers and business information providers. Audible.com is Amazon.com's (www.amazon.com) exclusive provider of spoken word products for downloading or streaming via the Web. Additionally, the Company is strategically aligned with Random House, Inc., to pioneer the first-ever imprint to produce spoken word content specifically suited for digital distribution, Random House Audible. Among the Company's key business partners are Apple, Casio Inc., Handspring, Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, Palm, Inc., Royal Philips Electronics, RealNetworks, Inc., Sony Electronics, Texas Instruments and VoiceAge Corp.

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