audiobook subscription

[EricNoah]

I just got myself an early holiday present: a subscription to audible.com so I can get a regular stream of audibooks for my iPod. It's about $15 a month (special right now is $7.50 a month for the first 3 months). Each month I get 1 credit; most audiobooks are 1 credit (though really long ones are 2). Today with my 1 credit for this month I bought Master & Commander, clocking in at about 16 hours long. On my wishlist for future purchase are A Game of Thrones, American Gods, Dune, I Claudius, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Oh, I also got a complimentary subscription to a 45-min daily New York Times podcast. And I guess I get 30% off of purchases if I want to go beyond 1 credit (though I don't plan on it).

Maybe this will turn out to be something I don't use as much as I think will; during the summer, though, I'm always looking for podcasts and other things to listen to on my bike rides and hikes, and when we go on long trips I find time flies when I'm listening to an audiobook or podcast moreso than with music. I do know that I shy away from buying individual audiobooks at iTunes, but the subscription model seemed much more attractive to me for some reason. I figure that since I don't play WoW, this could be my replacement subscription.

Anyway, just excited and wanted to share!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

My wife and I use audible quite a bit -- it's how I finally got her into a Song of Ice & Fire and the Wheel of Time, 'cause she doesn't have the patience to sit down and read for that long, but will listen to books on her ipod when traveling, driving, sewing, walking the dogs, etc.

I use them traveling, driving, biking, running ... ASoI&F and Wheel of Time books have clocked in at 30+ hours each so between us we get a lot of use out of one book. I find audiobooks in this format have edged out other audio entertainment because we'll listen to a book rather than the radio, CDs, music mp3s, etc. We haven't done the subscription thing, but usually buy individual books (and get a membership/credit discount).

 

[JoeBlank]

This sounds great. I have not made the leap to getting an iPod or similar player yet, but this might be the hook that pushes me to make the leap.

 

[Merkuri]

Oh, I've been using Audible for years. It's wonderful!

I started when I got my first real "career" job and had to drive two hours a day to work and back (still living at my parents' house). Audible had a decent selection and their books were about the same price as a hardcover, which was tons cheaper than buying the physical CDs. They're cheaper still if you get a subscription.

After I had been buying books one at a time from them for a while they had an offer where they were giving away a free iPod shuffle with a year's subscription. The total price of the subscription was about what I would've paid for the iPod, had I bought it at the store, so I decided it was a pretty awesome deal. I got my iPod, and ever since then I've been on and off the subscription plan (I unsubscribe when I have so many books that I can't possibly listen to them fast enough, then subscribe again when I'm done listening to those I have).

Now that I don't have a commute to speak of, I still listen to my audiobooks all the time with my iPod. It really makes routine housekeeping chores more pleasant. My boyfriend, Awayfarer, thinks listening to audiobooks is cheating, but I'm going through books twice as fast now, if you count my regular reading books and my audio books. And when I have a really really good audio book going I'll find myself looking for things to clean around the house so I can have more time to listen.

There are two things I don't like about Audible, and they're both kinda moot points. The first is that they don't carry Harry Potter (I had to buy all seven sets of CDs at about $40-$80 a piece, depending on when I bought them), but I'm done reading all of them at this point. The second was that when I canceled my subscription the first time they actually called up my house and asked me why I was leaving them. That wasn't so bad, but they wouldn't accept, "I have too many books, so I'm going to read the ones I have and subscribe again when I'm done" as an answer. I had to hang up on them. They didn't call me the second time I canceled, though. Maybe they got the hint the first time.

 

[Blastin]

I've been an Audible subscriber for a few years. I have long commutes, and these books have saved my sanity. I have used my credits to listen to a good number of the "classics" that I probably never would have read otherwise. I highly recommend the service. Oh, and it works on all kinds of players, not just I-pod. My first was a simple MP3 player, and now I listen to them through my pocket PC.

 

[Merkuri]

Oh, and it works on all kinds of players, not just I-pod.

True, but it doesn't work with all players. My first MP3 player was one I bought on a snap decision because it was an $80 player on sale for $20. (Who can beat an MP3 player for $20?) That MP3 player couldn't play Audible's format.

I was able to listen to Audible books on it, but I had to burn the books to CD first, then rip them into MP3s which would then play on the MP3 player. It was annoying and wasted a lot of CDs (although I kept the CDs I used as backups), but it worked. It was much easier when I got my iPod and could just put the .aa files on it directly. Took up much less room, too, and the iPod was smart enough not to play audiobooks when it was in "shuffle" mode, so if I put the audiobooks at the top of my playlist I could easily switch back and forth between "audiobook" and "music" mode by switching on and off the shuffle button. That's handy to be able to do on an MP3 player that doesn't have a screen.