I’ve recently been in the market for some audio books. Right now I commute to work (about an hour one way) and since I have a MP3 jack in my car, I wanted an audio book to put on my iPod that I could listen to on my way to/from work (and even at work). But I’m really disgusted at the pricing. I mean, I realize audio books have always been much more expensive than regular print books, and even eBooks, but I don’t understand why an audio download is $17-$25. One of life’s little mysteries, eh?
Since I’m not about to pay that price, I’m appealing to all of you. Can you recommend a good site to purchase discount audio book downloads? I’m somewhat confused (I’m a total newbie here) about the “membership” programs some sites office.
Audible, for example, is running a special right now. If you join now, the first three months is only $7.49 and you receive one download credit a month. I see there’s a note that some books are more than one credit, which means what, exactly? The site isn’t very clear on exactly what you receive with your membership. Is it that you get one discounted book a month and then any other book is full price? If so, how is that a savings? I mean, if I buy 5 books a month from them and only get one free…well, I’m still spending about $100 a month for four books. That so isn’t worth paying a monthly fee, too.
Am I better off just ordering CD’s from eBay and my used bookstore? Have any suggestions? I really want to make use of all that time I spend in the car.
Hi Holly,
I don’t have any suggestions for places to go.
I get my books on CD from the library. I bought a CD player for the job and I listen to them in the car.
Right now downloading isn’t in the budget.
Ditto what LaShaunda said. I get mine on CD from the library. I wish I could help!
WOOT, Holly, that’s one of my fave things to pimp!!
Definitely check with your library to see if 1-They participate in a downloadable service (although they still should have CDs even if they don’t) and 2-Whether their format is compatible with iPods (some aren’t).
As for Audible, they recently stopped offering new members the $9.99/year membership that I have, but nonetheless, if you are a member, any audio books you buy beyond the amount per month you’ve signed up for will still be at member pricing, which is significantly below list price or Amazon price.
As for the number of credits per book, my plan doesn’t use credits but I’ve noticed that most of the ones I’ve bought show that they are worth ONE credit. Browse around Audible and see how many credits the books that interest you are worth.
I haven’t checked lately, but I know that in the past if you clicked on the “display all formats” for a book at Amazon and one of them was a downloadable format, then you were re-directed to Audible. As a member of Audible, it was always cheaper to buy directly thru Audible, but if you aren’t a member, it’s still cheaper than list price to buy thru Amazon.
BTW, Madame Butterfly recently joined Audible precisely because it’s compatible with her iPod and her library’s download service wasn’t. In addition, Audible books can also be burned onto CDs (and theoretically those Cds could then be loaded onto another computer, but that would be illegal so I won’t mention it).
Oh, and now that Amazon owns both Brilliance Audio AND Audible, many of the Brilliance Audio titles are now being offered at Audible. So, WOOTWOOT!! That means you now have no excuse not to listen to Phil Gigante’s swoonworthy narration of KMM’s Highlander series.
And don’t forget that Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse is brought to Southern fried life by Johanna Parker. Or Nancy Wu’s snarkfilled narration of MJD’s Betsy. Or… well, you get the idea. ;-D
I don’t buy audio books because as you’ve noted they’re very expensive, and I’m not at all familiar with any of the audio book sites out there. So what I do is go to the library, check out any audio books I’m interested in and then rip the CDs into iTunes the same way I do a (music) CD. Then I just sync iTunes with my iPod and I have an audio book to listen to for free.
My library has downloadable audio books, too, but it’s not compatible with my iPod and most of the time you can’t even burn the book to a CD, so it’s pretty useless to me.
A lot of libraries now offer downloadable audios. Assuming your library has such a service, you’d need to check to see if it’s compatible with your iPod though. Steve Jobs, tool that he is, hasn’t been playing nice with libraries thus far.
Holly, I have come to really love audio books.
If not for them, my books read list would be much smaller than it is.
Out of the 20 books I have read, half have been audio.
I don’t buy mine though. My local library has a fantastic CD collection. They actually get new release audio before the print version even comes into the library!
Also, I don’t even have to leave home to get them. With my library card number, I can download audio books online.
Awesome awesome.
Like you, I have started to look around at some of the online audio stores, I can’t decide though–my library is REALLY good at getting new book in ASAP.
Hey, you should talk to Bev(QB) She is really into audio books.
AH, I see that she has already posted. Good, lol
Um,that should say ‘out of the LAST 20 books…’
sigh.
I am an avid audiobook listener. I have found in addition to audible a great rental site zdag.com as well as simplyaudiobooks and audiotogo.com lol