Audible Review

Keystone Nyan Cat · December 30, 2014

Hello!

So just a bit of background- I'm currently in university and we're required to read a book called "To The Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf. While I've already read the physical copy, I thought I may be more focused and things may be better understood through a person reading the book as I go through it, so I became an Audible member through Linus' code and got myself a free book.

Audible does have quite the selection of books, I'll give them that. Such as for the book I chose, there were ~6 different recordings for it, and the one that I picked up by Nicole had the vocals perfect. http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_hp_tseft?advsearchKeywords=to+the+lighthouse&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

So with the background out of the way, I guess I'll preface by what I like about Audible-

> Good quality- The audiobook I tried had a consistent narration and the person was fluent with the language. There were no distractions or background noise and it just seemed to be a generally high quality production.

> The file size is rather reasonable- 90MB for a 7 hour recording

> The book picks off from where you started (self explanatory)

> Great and friendly email support- I was having an issue wherein I could not increase the playback speed because I wanted to skim by the book faster; I got an email from their support within the next day.

> Better focus- I focused much better with having someone narrate the book while reading it. In the book, To the Lighthouse, which uses a modernist stlye of writing coupled with an excessive use of the steam of consciousness, I noticed things that I previously didn't. More so, some parts that seemed like gibber were now clear. Some books should be primarily heard rather than read, and Audible does a great job at delivering that

Now, here comes the negatives

> DRM- Audible has possibly one of the worst DRM solutions out there in my opinion. After I purchased the file, I needed to install a client to download the audiobook. That didn't work the first time round with the download button prompting me to install the client again, so after two rounds of installing and reinstalling which involved restarting my browser, I finally got the audiobook to download. Everything was going great, until I wanted to put it on my phone. While there is an app, I wanted to play it through as a .mp3 file, but I only had the .aa file which is proprietary and only works with their app. There should be no reason why I can't play it how I want it after purchasing something. This is punishing people who actually pay for the book and rewarding those who simply pirate it and get in a DRM free format with which they can do anything.

> GUI- Their interface doesn't look that great and is quite limited in what it can do. Aside from having a green theme which looks like from the early 2000s, there's no option to speed up or down playback and we can't even do so with other players since we can only play the audiobook through their software and WMP. Also, while I haven't tried this, there should be no reason why their android app requires permission to access my contacts.

> (Highly Subjective) Price- I feel audible is a bit overpriced for what it's offering- audiobooks, something which should be sold complimentary to the actual books, should within 5$ of the actual price of the book, preferably cheaper. While you do get a free book at 15$ per month membership, buying one alone is rather expensive; let's look at Ender in Exile for example.

Audible- 39.93USD http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Ender-in-Exile-Audiobook/B002VA9DO6/ref=a_search_c4_1_3_srTtl?qid=1419916475&sr=1-3

Amazon- 3.65USD (Hardcover) http://www.amazon.in/Ender-Exile-Game-Book-Enders/dp/1841492272/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419916672&sr=8-1&keywords=ender+in+exile

Audible's price is more than 10 times that of a physical copy! While this is subjective, I feel that this is a bit overpriced.

Despite their audiobook being quite good, I don't feel Audble worked out for me, and what killed it for me was the DRM. People's experiences will vary from mine, but I wouldn't recommend using Audible for audiobooks until they don't become more consumer friendly with how we store and use their media. However, if you're looking for really good audiobooks and are prepared to deal with their draconian DRM, definitely give them a shot.

ofr057 · January 2, 2015

do you actually get to keep the 1 audio book you get for the membership?

or is it just a rental thing?

yes the drm really kills it, I would really like it if google or someone you could just get it in mp3 or something like that so i could use my ipod

LarsReviews · January 2, 2015

40 for a DRM Version is really overpriced in my opinion. I prefer to listen to books on Youtube, because it is free. Also there is this one guy who has a really good voice for reading books.

withoutnick · January 2, 2015

Thanks for the review. I was thinking about making an audible account, but looking at the price and the really stupid DRM, I think I'll just keep pirating my audio books. You know, it's funny. I wouldn't mind paying for it. Hell, I'd even consider the higher price for some of my favorite books (though something like $20 for a book would be more reasonable in my opinion).

But the thing that REALLY kills it for me is the DRM. That's just stupid.

Keystone Nyan Cat · January 2, 2015

do you actually get to keep the 1 audio book you get for the membership?

or is it just a rental thing?

yes the drm really kills it, I would really like it if google or someone you could just get it in mp3 or something like that so i could use my ipod

Nope, you get to keep it.