Yes or no to Audible

By Leonora Leo, 8 March, 2016

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Other Apple Chat

Hi guys!
I have been considering dropping Audible.
I have started to use Bookshare and I'm very happy with it.
I find paying for an Audible membership unnecessary since I can find most of the books through Bookshare or Legimus, which is the Swedish Daisy library app.

So my question is, do you read commercial audiobooks? What apps do you use?

I know the final decision is mine. But what would you have done in my situation?

To answer my own questions:
I currently use Audible, Read2Go, Legimus and Storytel (which is a Swedish app for streaming audiobooks).
I feel that I don't need Audible or Storytel. I could always find the Swedish books on Legimus and the English books on Read2Go.
But then there are all of the good narrations I'd be missing.
As you see, it's quite the dilemma.

So, until I decide, I'm curious to know what you would do.

Options

Comments

By Toonhead on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Most of the time I use Audible and BARD Mobile. So I'm very happy with the services there. However, if you're not making good use of Audible, nobody would ever think you were a terrible person if you dropped your subscription. I mean, why pay for something if you're not making good use of it, right? So I definitely like audible and BARD mobile, others may prefer bookshare.

By Leonora Leo on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Since I live in Sweden, I can't access the books on Bard Mobile. I really hate geographical restrictions. It makes no sense to me. Bookshare really helped me there. I would never have been able to get hold on so many books without it. Audible has been great as well.

By Roxann Pollard on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Personally, I use Audible, BARD, and Kindle on my iPhone. I prefer to use either BARD or Audible due to the human narrators. However, to my great delight, since I'm an avid reader, I find that Kindle offers me way more content. So, if human narration is your chosen method of reading then it should be Audible. But if finances are an issue, then another option should be used. I purchase a subscription whenever I can but that's not often. But since I've purchased books from Audible in the past, I can still reread my Audible purchases at any time. It's a hard choice to make. Despite the high prices for Audible subscriptions, if you look at purchasing just one audible style book from iTunes, you will soon see that the Audible subscription fees aren't that high after all.

Happy reading in whatever method you choose.

By Siobhan on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Hello. I haven't had coffee so if this sounds crazy sorry lol. Every month you get one or two credits based on your plan. I save them until I want say a series, then I buy all of them with credits. so yes, it's twenty dollars a month but that will let you save credits over time. The bard app people are talking about i find have narators I don't care for. I want real expression in a book, not jus someone reading the printed word. Another thing you can do is put the membership on hold for a few months, that gives you time to decide if you really want to drop the membership. I enjoy audible a lot, I enjoy Amanda ronconi and laural merlington as well as Dick hill. Just a few sample people to test out. Just watch out for the narators who sound like high school cheerleaders, they can absolutely brake a book. Anyway yes it's up to you, but whatever happens I hope you know, you canreactivate your subscription.

By Toonhead on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

The interesting part is that the NLS, (national library service) has started using commercial books instead of those read by volunteer readers. The books come out much faster than they used to, so you might see a book released on BARD in a couple months, verses the year that it used to take before. Not all books added to the collection are like this, but some are.

By david s on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Hey! What's wrong with cheerleader sounding voices? LOL Yeah, the reader or narrator does make or break a book for me.

I used audible for a month and ended up cancelling it. Instead, I spend the monthly fee on other computer related trinkets.

For reading, I use BARD and Overdrive. With the Overdrive app, I can access different library systems such as the LA county library, San Francisco library or New York libraries. When I travel to a city I've never been to, I go to the local library, tell them I';; be there for a bit and get a library card. The card then allows me to access their online digital books. With this setup, I find the newly released books as well as older books that other libraries may not have. So yeah, an Audible account is something I was able to do without.

By Siobhan on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Guys all the Bard toating is great, but he has said more then once in the same post, he does not have access to NLS content. As for the overdrive person,interesting concept, but I prefer well doen quality. Now granted I'm moving in a week, so I'll be canceling for awhile until the whole shelter food water needs are met. Lol

By david s on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Hello,

The teddy bear person is correct. The original poster said they would like to use BARD but cannot.

So I have a couple of suggestions. If you have relatives in the US, they can go to their local library and apply for a library card. They can then create an Overdrive account that you can use to sign in and get books.

Or you can check out this site. Perhaps a resource on that page will help you in getting access to other libraries in your country or close by.
http://blindreaders.info/forlibs.html

Or, if you can afford it or have nothing better to do with the monthly fee, keep audible.

By Tiffany J. Kim on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

Hi,

I enjoy Audible greatly and have amassed quite a lot of books over the years I've been a subscriber. However, I prefer human narration and have used it for the most part, with Bookshare filling in the gaps for books I can't readily get on Audible such as cookbooks and more technical materials. I recently found out about Audible's daily deal program which sells a different book for under $5 each day. The daily selection isn't always something that interests me, but I've found some books I want to read that way. I don't think you need to be a paying subscriber to sign up for the daily deal notifications. I believe you do need to be a member in order to be alerted about the sales (like the $4.95 First in a Series sale or the two-for-one credit sales), but Audible has a $9.95 yearly plan that lets you keep your current credit balance and the 30% member discount and access to the sales. I got offered this plan when I wanted to cancel once, so it might be something to consider if you are on the fence, still have an interest in getting books when they reach rock-bottom prices, but can't justify paying for their monthly subscription. I recently learned that if you add books to your Wish List, Audible will let you know when they go on sale. However, this hasn't always worked properly as it once told me a book in my Wish List had gone on sale, and when I couldn't tell which title had gone on sale, a customer service representative and I sat for about fifteen minutes, combing through it together only to discover that the mailer was mistaken!

By Holger Fiallo on Monday, March 21, 2016 - 20:51

OK. It is good. I get 2 credits for $14. I have over 200 audio books. Nice thing, you can return it if you do not like it and get a credit back.

By Sabrina on Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 20:51

I am also from Sweden and I stick to Legimus becausre it is free and I can read offline and the app is designed to be accessible. I recomend for you to use this app instead because it is the best option since you don’t have to pay for it and it is easy to use. I have a lot of books on my iPad in that app and it is about 14.3 gigabytes. :-) I am such a bookworm. I love to read, but I don’t use audible or story tell or anything. I have tried story tell but it wasn’t better and I have tried Audible a little but then again you have to pay to use it. Legimus is the swedish mtm library in your hand.

By JennyM on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - 20:51

While I do have a reader (Dolphin Easy Reader) and access to Canadian books for free, it is still almost always audible that I turn to.

Two reasons: the first is quality. While I deeply appreciate the volunteer effort that goes into recording free books, the quality of the professional narrator is always better.

The second is support. There are two people that I would call friends (not close friends, but friends nonetheless) who are published authors. Knowing what I know of them, I think that if I can afford to pay for author's work, I should. Not every writer is a J K Rowling or Stephen King.. they aren't raking in the millions or living a fancy life, and they do actually need the support of paying readers to keep writing the books I love so much.