Digital audio book provider Audible.com is getting in position -- readying itself for holiday sales, for coming online music subscription launches and for attracting a potentially younger base of subscribers.

As part of this effort, the Wayne, NJ-based company has started selling its own MP3 player, called the Otis, which it will market through a holiday sales pitch for subscribers, just as the music industry prepares to launch online music subscriptions.

The Otis features 64 megabytes of internal Flash memory that can store up to 20 hours of audio books and content as well as about two hours of digital music files. The player can also accommodate an external memory card that could boost the memory to 128 MB and it is compatible with Windows Media Audio files.

The company is charging $49.95 for the player, but that price is contingent upon a buyer subscribing to a monthly plan for access to the company's library of audio content. Price-wise, it's a big step up from the Rio600 player, made by SONICblue, that the company throws in free with a monthly subscription commitment.

But Audible is betting that new subscribers would be willing to pay a little more for an MP3 player that offers more memory and better fidelity for music files.

After launching its service with proprietary Audible Player hardware, the company began shifting its focus to third-party devices that were enabled to play Audible programming. Eventually, it has built a subscriber base of more than 100,000 customers by offering them digital audio players such as the devices from the Rio line of MP3 players. The original Audible Player, meanwhile, earned a place in the Smithsonian Museum as the first digital audio player.

But by offering its own player once again, Audible also protects itself should SONICblue decide to discontinue some of its older Rio players. The Otis player is also looking to catch the attention of a younger audience, and the product release coincides with some new content offerings geared for younger listeners.

In something of a departure from the more staid content in Audible's library of offerings, the company has unveiled a new exclusive audio show by three writers: Mark Leyner, author of "Et Tu, Babe" and "My Gastroenterologist", Gregg Proops of the TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway" and Steve Pink, a screenwriter on the movies "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "High Fidelity". The cast members will call in from wherever they are to record the exclusive programs.

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Besides trying to boost interest in digital audio by producing proprietary programming, Audible also hopes to capitalize on the new music subscription services, such as MusicNet and Pressplay, that are recently launched or in the works. And although most aren't expected to allow subscribers to copy music to a portable player, Audible sees the launch as an opportunity to get the company's product offerings before a group of consumers who may not have given digital content a try yet.

A company spokesman called the pitch "part of the Zeitgeist of valuable audio being delivered over the Internet."