Whether you've got 30-minutes on your commute to work or are waiting for a friend outside the cinema, sometimes you just want to pop in your headphones and get straight to your favourite song on a playlist or recent podcast episode.
After all, in this Tinder-swiping, Netflix-bingeing technological age, us millennials don't have a single second to waste faffing about.
So, this might explain why Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook retailer and producer, has launched a new feature that enables listeners to skip straight to the good bit of erotic fiction.
Bit left-field?
Perhaps, but why sit through a commute's worth of 'starters and main courses' when you can skip straight to the 'dessert', am I right, ladies?
Aptly titled 'Take me to the good part', the new function invites listeners to jump straight to the juicy bits of 110 romance titles in the company's collection.
Quartz reports listeners can, for example, skip straight to a fictional couple's first meeting, 'their innuendo-heavy banter, a marriage proposal, and, of course, sex scenes', skipping the foreplay and maximising your enjoyment for erotica.
The publication explains:
To help listeners find exactly the storyline they want, Audible has gone granular with its tagging system, including 41 categories, like 'animals/beasts,' 'immortals,' and 'time travel'; 63 character tropes, such as 'hockey player,' 'Navy SEAL,' and 'viscount'; and 67 cherished set-ups that include 'age gap,' 'secret babies,' 'brought together by a bet,' and 'fake relationship.'
Audible has also implemented a 'steaminess score' that ranks each book on a scale from 'sweet' to 'hot damn' and 'O-O-OMG'.
So, how does it all work?
Well, Audible editors reportedly outlined 10 classic plot points, and a programme ran searches for words associated with each which, when you think of it, is pretty simple work given that books placed in the erotica/romance genre most often follow the same formula, reports Quartz.
Our commute to work just got that bit more interesting.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
