6 ms·

Audible's greatest assault is on my wallet. So many audiobooks on that platform are exorbitantly expensive.

gh02t 7y ago
Audiobooks in general are pretty expensive, especially when compared to the price of a print/digital book. The costs to produce one are higher, and the market is smaller (though the latter is changing, as the article shows).
- _i____ii_______ 7y ago
  Why are the costs to produce audiobooks higher? Librivox has public domain books for free, submitted by volunteers.
  - reificator 7y ago
    Yes, you've been plugging this throughout the thread. I've been working on writing a book and want to sell an audio book alongside it. Could you go ahead and record it for free for me so I can sell it to recoup my own costs? No? Why not? I'm glad there are volunteer projects out there, especially keeping public domain works available and accessible to more people. I'm even more glad that you feel that the quality of your work stands up to the quality of commercial work, as mentioned in other comments in this thread. I've not heard your audiobook recordings, so I'll abstain from comment on that front. But why are you in here claiming that your volunteer work diminishes the paid work of others? Is that something to be proud of?
    - chihuahua 7y ago
      It's a variation on the theme "I own a DSLR camera and am capable of pushing the shutter button, therefore I don't understand how professional photographers can charge $$$$ for wedding photographs"
    - _i____ii_______ 7y ago
      I've never recorded for Librivox. I just record music and have gear so I know what the work entails. I couldn't provide a voice actor's inherent vocal quality, which seems to be some neutral everyman's voice you could'nt put a face to. But if you want to pay someone so much money to read your book into a mic and do some basic editing that they could purchase a brand new car at the end of a weeks work then be my guest.
Causality1 7y ago
Yep. Fifty hours of Netflix is fifteen dollars a month. Fifty hours of Audible content is close to a hundred bucks. Now, two dollars per hour is cheap compared to traditional entertainment like movie theaters and DVDs but downright insane compared to YouTube and Spotify.
- thisone 7y ago
  Hmmm, 100 hours of audible content would run me about 3 books. So around £18 when buying bulk credits. Or £24 when buying monthly. But I was taught to buy books by weight. Which has turned out to be good advice.
- icebraining 7y ago
  I'm currently listening to The Power Broker (over 65h of narration) and it only cost me one credit (so, about $15).
- max76 7y ago
  You could get a library card and checkout DVDs, audiobooks and books for free. Podcasts are free. Network television is free. Assuming you are working and middle class the expensive part about consuming fifty hours of entertainment isn't spending $15 or $100. It's spending fifty hours of your attention. People buying audiobooks aren't suckers, and most of them are spending much less than $2/hr.
Kudos 7y ago
I buy the Kindle copy and add the audiobook to it, it's usually at least half the price.
goldcd 7y ago
Individual prices of books exist solely to push you towards the monthly x-many-books model - which is pretty good value. I've been a member since 2005/6 (pre-amazon ownership) and I think my longest recurrent monthly thing. Audiobooks were historically insanely expensive - I used to borrow massive folders of cassette taps from my library of 'unabridged books' back in the 90s. Staple of my family holidays trapped in a car. Audible the company was the first/only as far as I'm aware company to work out that audiobooks were the 'premium podcast' and actually bother to sell them at a reasonable rate.
- sorenjan 7y ago
  How come audio books can be as or even more expensive than the same book in paper format? There's no production, shipping, and so on involved with digital products, and the recording itself is a few hours with the voice talent, often the author themselves, and a few more people in a small studio.
  - dmitriid 7y ago
    ”A few hours with a few people” is - often multiple hours in the studio because people make mistakes, they get tired, they want to re-do passages etc. - during recording you want at the very least a sound technician, the voice talent, and a director/author/producer to listen in and give direction/corrections/adjustments on the reading - after recording you need at least an editor, a director/producer to make sure the recording is cut correctly. And then off to the presses (that is, converting RAW audio to whatever digital formats). A designer may also be involved if the book requires a different cover. Disclosure: I work at Storytel though not anywhere near (other than physically) audiobook recordings.
    - _i____ii_______ 7y ago
      People do Librivox recordings free of charge as volunteers. Those recordings are just as good as Audible recordings. I myself, with rudimentary gear and a free DAW, can create an Audible level recording for the mere cost of my time. I'm going to have to totally reject your list of expenses. Sounds like a bunch of superfluous positions and bloat.
TheAceOfHearts 7y ago
Depending on how many books you read, it might be well worth buying a Platinum Membership. It costs $229.50/year and it comes with 24 credits, which means you pay $9.56 per book. After that you can buy additional credits for roughly the same rate, based on my purchase history it varies between $9.56 and $9.37 per credits. I definitely wouldn't have bought as many as I have if it wasn't so cheap. I just recently passed my 400th book, which is pretty insane because there's still TONS of stuff for me to work through. Assuming each book was priced at $9.56, my library would be worth around ~$3,800. That's an amazing price! That's less money than I paid for my car, and the audiobooks have greatly enriched my life in all sorts of ways.
- zeroonetwothree 7y ago
  I do the same thing and have ~500 books so far. I started in 2014, so I buy around 100/year. The overall price is actually cheaper than buying paper/ebooks, considering I buy many new releases. Also getting longer books is a really good value, since they cost the same. Just get Infinite Jest instead of 5 separate books.
intopieces 7y ago
If you are in the US, check out Hoopla digital for quite a few good audio books you can borrow. Bonus: you’ve already paid for it through your local library.
- dvlsg 7y ago
  Do they have any artificial restrictions? Last time I tried a similar app (it's been a few years), I wasn't able to get an audiobook because someone else already had it "checked out".
  - Tomte 7y ago
    Just like a regular book in a library.
    - dvlsg 7y ago
      That's what feels strange to me, though. It's not a physical book that can only be in one place at a time, so why are we holding ourselves back with artificial limitations? I suspect it has something to do with licensing, but I don't know for sure.
      - Tomte 7y ago
        Of course that's the reason. And I have no problem with it. You may want to live in a world where a publisher sells a twenty Euro book exactly once, but that's not sustainable. If you want more concurrent users, pay for it. The library has decided which level of concurrent users to buy.
carrja99 7y ago
Have you checked your library? It's not perfect but ours has a digital app with a large selection of audiobooks, all for free. It has greatly reduced my need to buy audible books.
sxcurry 7y ago
Many comments on this thread seem to be confusing cost with value. I have both Libby and an Audible subscription. Libby - free, limited selection, clunky weird interface, long waits for books, production glitches. Audible - nearly every book, available now, good production, return any book anytime, fairly good app, costs $ every month. Up to you which is the best value.
- frosted-flakes 7y ago
  Libby has a "clunky weird interface"? It's different, but it works really well. I think it's fantastic, and it's certainly better than the old Overdrive app. As for a limited selection, that depends entirely on how many licences your library buys. My local library has a very good selection. Alas, it also has a lot of users, so some of the more popular books will have long hold lines.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

Audiobooks in general are pretty expensive, especially when compared to the price of a print/digital book. The costs to produce one are higher, and the market is smaller (though the latter is changing, as the article shows).

_i____ii_______ 7y ago
Why are the costs to produce audiobooks higher? Librivox has public domain books for free, submitted by volunteers.
- reificator 7y ago
  Yes, you've been plugging this throughout the thread. I've been working on writing a book and want to sell an audio book alongside it. Could you go ahead and record it for free for me so I can sell it to recoup my own costs? No? Why not? I'm glad there are volunteer projects out there, especially keeping public domain works available and accessible to more people. I'm even more glad that you feel that the quality of your work stands up to the quality of commercial work, as mentioned in other comments in this thread. I've not heard your audiobook recordings, so I'll abstain from comment on that front. But why are you in here claiming that your volunteer work diminishes the paid work of others? Is that something to be proud of?
  - chihuahua 7y ago
    It's a variation on the theme "I own a DSLR camera and am capable of pushing the shutter button, therefore I don't understand how professional photographers can charge $$$$ for wedding photographs"
  - _i____ii_______ 7y ago
    I've never recorded for Librivox. I just record music and have gear so I know what the work entails. I couldn't provide a voice actor's inherent vocal quality, which seems to be some neutral everyman's voice you could'nt put a face to. But if you want to pay someone so much money to read your book into a mic and do some basic editing that they could purchase a brand new car at the end of a weeks work then be my guest.

Causality1 7y ago

Yep. Fifty hours of Netflix is fifteen dollars a month. Fifty hours of Audible content is close to a hundred bucks. Now, two dollars per hour is cheap compared to traditional entertainment like movie theaters and DVDs but downright insane compared to YouTube and Spotify.

thisone 7y ago
Hmmm, 100 hours of audible content would run me about 3 books. So around £18 when buying bulk credits. Or £24 when buying monthly. But I was taught to buy books by weight. Which has turned out to be good advice.
icebraining 7y ago
I'm currently listening to The Power Broker (over 65h of narration) and it only cost me one credit (so, about $15).
max76 7y ago
You could get a library card and checkout DVDs, audiobooks and books for free. Podcasts are free. Network television is free. Assuming you are working and middle class the expensive part about consuming fifty hours of entertainment isn't spending $15 or $100. It's spending fifty hours of your attention. People buying audiobooks aren't suckers, and most of them are spending much less than $2/hr.

Kudos 7y ago

I buy the Kindle copy and add the audiobook to it, it's usually at least half the price.

goldcd 7y ago

Individual prices of books exist solely to push you towards the monthly x-many-books model - which is pretty good value. I've been a member since 2005/6 (pre-amazon ownership) and I think my longest recurrent monthly thing. Audiobooks were historically insanely expensive - I used to borrow massive folders of cassette taps from my library of 'unabridged books' back in the 90s. Staple of my family holidays trapped in a car. Audible the company was the first/only as far as I'm aware company to work out that audiobooks were the 'premium podcast' and actually bother to sell them at a reasonable rate.

sorenjan 7y ago
How come audio books can be as or even more expensive than the same book in paper format? There's no production, shipping, and so on involved with digital products, and the recording itself is a few hours with the voice talent, often the author themselves, and a few more people in a small studio.
- dmitriid 7y ago
  ”A few hours with a few people” is - often multiple hours in the studio because people make mistakes, they get tired, they want to re-do passages etc. - during recording you want at the very least a sound technician, the voice talent, and a director/author/producer to listen in and give direction/corrections/adjustments on the reading - after recording you need at least an editor, a director/producer to make sure the recording is cut correctly. And then off to the presses (that is, converting RAW audio to whatever digital formats). A designer may also be involved if the book requires a different cover. Disclosure: I work at Storytel though not anywhere near (other than physically) audiobook recordings.
  - _i____ii_______ 7y ago
    People do Librivox recordings free of charge as volunteers. Those recordings are just as good as Audible recordings. I myself, with rudimentary gear and a free DAW, can create an Audible level recording for the mere cost of my time. I'm going to have to totally reject your list of expenses. Sounds like a bunch of superfluous positions and bloat.

TheAceOfHearts 7y ago

Depending on how many books you read, it might be well worth buying a Platinum Membership. It costs $229.50/year and it comes with 24 credits, which means you pay $9.56 per book. After that you can buy additional credits for roughly the same rate, based on my purchase history it varies between $9.56 and $9.37 per credits. I definitely wouldn't have bought as many as I have if it wasn't so cheap. I just recently passed my 400th book, which is pretty insane because there's still TONS of stuff for me to work through. Assuming each book was priced at $9.56, my library would be worth around ~$3,800. That's an amazing price! That's less money than I paid for my car, and the audiobooks have greatly enriched my life in all sorts of ways.

zeroonetwothree 7y ago
I do the same thing and have ~500 books so far. I started in 2014, so I buy around 100/year. The overall price is actually cheaper than buying paper/ebooks, considering I buy many new releases. Also getting longer books is a really good value, since they cost the same. Just get Infinite Jest instead of 5 separate books.

intopieces 7y ago

If you are in the US, check out Hoopla digital for quite a few good audio books you can borrow. Bonus: you’ve already paid for it through your local library.

dvlsg 7y ago
Do they have any artificial restrictions? Last time I tried a similar app (it's been a few years), I wasn't able to get an audiobook because someone else already had it "checked out".
- Tomte 7y ago
  Just like a regular book in a library.
  - dvlsg 7y ago
    That's what feels strange to me, though. It's not a physical book that can only be in one place at a time, so why are we holding ourselves back with artificial limitations? I suspect it has something to do with licensing, but I don't know for sure.
    - Tomte 7y ago
      Of course that's the reason. And I have no problem with it. You may want to live in a world where a publisher sells a twenty Euro book exactly once, but that's not sustainable. If you want more concurrent users, pay for it. The library has decided which level of concurrent users to buy.

carrja99 7y ago

Have you checked your library? It's not perfect but ours has a digital app with a large selection of audiobooks, all for free. It has greatly reduced my need to buy audible books.

sxcurry 7y ago

Many comments on this thread seem to be confusing cost with value. I have both Libby and an Audible subscription. Libby - free, limited selection, clunky weird interface, long waits for books, production glitches. Audible - nearly every book, available now, good production, return any book anytime, fairly good app, costs $ every month. Up to you which is the best value.

frosted-flakes 7y ago
Libby has a "clunky weird interface"? It's different, but it works really well. I think it's fantastic, and it's certainly better than the old Overdrive app. As for a limited selection, that depends entirely on how many licences your library buys. My local library has a very good selection. Alas, it also has a lot of users, so some of the more popular books will have long hold lines.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]