Audible has announced that it is rolling out Dolby Atmos support for books and podcasts and is launching with more than 40 works right off the bat.

Some of those books are classics like The Little Mermaid with Audible promising "a magical retelling" of the classic tale all thanks to the ability to place sounds in 3D space.

Dolby Atmos and spacial audio is something of a hot ticket right now and has been ever since Apple rolled it out as part of the Apple Music offering. It's designed to try and create a more absorbing aural experience thanks to the ability to make things sound like they're coming from all around the listener, even when they're only using a pair of headphones or earbuds.

Those with more fancy audio gear will no doubt benefit the most, but Audible says that its subscribers can now download and stream in Dolby Atmos on iOS and Dolby Atmos-enabled Android devices.

'An innovative audio experience'

“Dolby Atmos is an innovative audio experience that is empowering creators to showcase their artistic vision at its greatest potential,” John Couling, Senior Vice President, Entertainment, Dolby Laboratories, said via a statement provided to Pocket-lint. “Sound placement can now be used as a new element to draw audiences even closer to their favorite podcasts, audio narratives, and stories with Dolby Atmos. By partnering with Audible, we are bringing incredible immersive sound to one of the world’s leading services and catalogs for audio storytelling.”

There are plenty of Audible Originals available in Dolby Atmos at launch including Letters From Camp, Oliver Twister, The Sandman Act III, and Marrow. Audible listeners need just search for "Dolby Atmos" in the Audible app and choose what they want to listen to to get started.

You can get yourself a free trial for Audible above if you want to take Dolby Atmos for a spin yourself and if you've never given audiobooks a try, now might be a good time to do it.