Only if nearly all your listeners are on Audible, and you are content to stay there for years. ACX pays 50% for exclusive distribution, 30% for non-exclusive, under Audible's new royalty model. The exclusive rate is higher, but it limits the audiobook to Audible, Amazon and Apple Books, on a seven-year term, auto-renewing yearly, with an exit ninety days after the first sale. Non-exclusive pays less on ACX's own sales but frees the audiobook for everyone else. Voices by INaudio is non-exclusive with no lock-in — opt out of any store or leave at any time, and reaches Spotify, Kobo, Google Play and libraries. Spotify for Authors is a direct upload to Spotify only, non-exclusive, so you can distribute elsewhere too.
ACX is Amazon's audiobook marketplace. You choose a distribution option for each title, and the choice sets both your rate and where the audiobook may be sold:
The current rates are 50% for exclusive distribution, 30% for non-exclusive, under Audible's new royalty model. That model took effect on 26 May 2026, and the legacy model it replaced is due to be discontinued by the end of 2026, so older guides quote figures that no longer apply.
The rate is applied to two different things. On an outright purchase it is the price Audible sells at. On a listen by an Audible member it is "Member Value": the member's monthly fee, less discounts, taxes and fees, divided among the titles that member listened to in proportion to their prices. What a membership listen earns is therefore not fixed in advance.
ACX's distribution right runs on a seven-year term, auto-renewing yearly, with an exit ninety days after the first sale. From that point you may switch an exclusive title to non-exclusive, or ask to end distribution altogether.
The practical reading: exclusive is not a 90-day experiment like KDP Select. It is a long-term default you can leave, but only once the title has actually sold.
ACX is open to rights holders in the US, UK, Canada or Ireland with local tax and banking details. Authors elsewhere cannot use it directly. Voices by INaudio lists Audible among its channels, which makes it one route to Audible from outside those countries.
Going non-exclusive does not mean leaving ACX. It means using ACX for Audible, Amazon and Apple Books, and something else for the rest.
Voices by INaudio, formerly Findaway Voices, is a wide audiobook distributor. On payment the split is simple: authors keep 80% of the royalties INaudio collects and set their own list prices. What each retailer or library pays INaudio differs by channel, and the dashboard shows each partner's rate before you publish. Its channels include Spotify, Kobo, Google Play, Barnes & Noble and library platforms such as OverDrive, Hoopla and BorrowBox.
Spotify for Authors is a direct upload to Spotify. It pays 50% of the suggested retail price you set, on a direct purchase, and for Premium listening a pro-rata share of total audiobook listening, set by Spotify with no published rate.
If you use ACX non-exclusive for Audible, Amazon and Apple, switch those stores off in Voices by INaudio. Voices lets you opt out of individual partners. The same applies to Spotify: reach it through Spotify for Authors or through Voices, not both. Two routes into one store risk a duplicate listing.
Terms are quoted from the platforms' own documents as recorded in the AuthorAZ Publishing Database. Platform facts verified 25 September 2026.
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