(Last edited April 25 2009)

This review covers the Audible service with a main focus on the Audible.com which services USA and Canada. There is also Audible.co.uk for UK listeners, Audible France for those in France and Audible.de for German listeners. The main service is very much the same. The promotions offered may vary.

What is Audible?

What is Audible? Think of Audible as a comprehensive package of software and services that provide a comprehensive audio experience. Discard the typical rigid definition of audiobook. Audible offers much more than simply “audio books”. They offer a huge collection of audio entertainment, education, periodicals that you can easily purchase and enjoy practically right away. Forget about the old casssette tapes or CDs or even DVDs. The strength of Audible is that it’s fast, easily accessible and transferable and can be enjoy practically everywhere, provided you have your portable audio device like a cell phone, mp3 player, etc.

Books, Classics, Education, Shows, etc

Audible offers a huge collection of material that can be enjoyed in an audio format. That includes the typical classic literature, books of many different genres and the latest best sellers that most of us think about. It also includes much more. Audible offers the typical daily, weekly and monthly periodicals like Wall Street Journal, New York Times, New Yorker, but they also offer podcasts and shows like Your Mac Life, The Splendid Table, Car Talk, Charlie Rose, This American Life and others too many to mention. Did you know that they also offer old nostalgia radio shows of yesteryear like The Shadow, Fibber McGee & Molly, etc? Or, perhaps you’re interested in educational listens. How about taking some rapid learning language courses offered by Earworms like their Rapid German, Rapid Spanish, etc? Or, maybe you’re thinking about getting some help with school work. Check out the Spark Notes or textbooks offered at Vango Notes. Are you more into politics or live events? Check out the vast collection of past presidential debates, inauguration speeches or other live event recordings, many of them free. What about checking out some travel guides to aid your travel planning or immerse yourself in a virtual vacation? Or enjoy some comedic skits and programs offered by your favorite comedian like Monty Python, Black Adder, etc. There’s also romance, biographies, poetry, health, history, self development, science, science fiction, sports. Whatever your interest, Audible likely offers something you’ll likely enjoy. There’s audio material for the much younger listeners who are starting out their audio book enrichment.

As I’ve said before, Audible offers so much more than audiobooks. Check out their website and search for whatever you’re interested in. You may be pleasantly surprised!

For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

Listen while you work, commute, or doing anything

One of the wonderful things I enjoy about Audible is that you “listen” to audio books rather than “reading” them. Rather than take up valuable time and energy “reading” and concentrating on reading a book, you can now lie back, close your eyes or continue to do whatever you’re doing and “listen” to an audio book, or periodical, lesson, etc. So while you’re working, you can still be entertained or learning something new. This can be very handy when you’re commuting to work or going back home, making it more of a relaxing experience than it would be without Audible. I personally love this idea of listening to audio books because it allows me to do a variety of things and stay productive while still benefiting from the audio material. Or, you can truly relax in the backyard or even during your work break and enjoy an entertaining fictional audio book, or upgrade your knowledge with the vast amount of non-fictional and personal development material. Learn a new language or introduce the Cat in the Hat or any of the many children audio books available to your children. The very nice thing about it is that you can listen to it in your own time. Stop it whenever you need to and come back to it later. Listen in your car, on the bus, in the shower, just before going to sleep, or whenever. It’s up to you. And,it’s not just audio books anymore.

Engaging and Entertaining

A lot of audiobooks are very well produced. Not only are some of the narrators excellent at their craft of using their voice to convey emotion, create mood, some audiobooks also offer a dramatized version of books and shows. You’ll hear backgrounds, music which enhance the overall audio experience in addition to the wonderful work of the narration. If you don’t believe me, check out some of the fiction titles, especially science fiction ones or thrillers where you can clearly hear background music and sound effects. It’s like you’re listening to a radio show instead of an audiobook. What an experience!

Pay and play right away

Another great feature of Audible is you can listen to an audio file right away. You simply make your purchase online and can then immediately download them to your computer and transfer them to your Palm, or iPod or other supported mp3 players or devices. Then simply enjoy your purchase right away. No waits for the mail to arrive. It’s immediate gratification!

Unlike many other audio book services where you have to wait weeks for the physical cassettes or CDs to arrive in the mail, you can access them immediately and an unlimited number of times. Unlike book rentals, there is no time limit to finish and return it. Take as long as you want. You can download it as many times as you’d like. You “own” your copy of the audio book forever, even when you no longer subscribe to a monthly membership plan. If you ever want to listen to your purchased Audible book, simply log back into your account and download it again.

Also, because there is no physical format of the audiobook, there’s no need to wait weeks for the cassettes or CDs to arrive in the mail. Also, the best thing about Audible is that it’s available wherever you can access the internet. So, you don’t necessarily need to be at home and in front of your own computer. If you have a wireless connected device like an iPhone, or smartphone, you can have access to all your files anywhere you have access to the internet (school, home, internet cafe). Download them at your leisure. Remove the files to save some storage space on your memory card and re-download them again if you want to. It costs nothing extra. All audiobooks you’ve purchased are yours FOREVER.

If you own a wireless connected device like a Palm Treo or iPhone, or other smartphones that can connect to the internet wirelessly (via cellular data connection or Wi-Fi), you can also take advantage of their Audible Air feature. Simply launch your Audible player in your device and then activate Audible Air. Then, download your Audible file directly to your device. Read my review of the Audible Air service here. Wow! Talk about not needing the computer anymore! Keep in mind that you will need your wireless internet connection to download the file. If you are using wireless data connection through your cellular carrier, you will may find that unless you have an unlimited data plan that your monthly bill can surprise you. Or, if you have Wi-Fi, you may find that the costs can be quite reasonable, especially if you have a Wi-fi plan from Boingo or others.

Audible Air

If you have a Treo smartphone or other Wi-Fi enabled Palm or smartphone device, you can also take advantage of a new service called Audible Air. Check out my review of AudibleAir here. Now with Audible Air, you can wirelessly download the Audible content via Wi-Fi directly onto your Wi-Fi enabled Palm anywhere, without the need for a computer. You can schedule the download at your convenience or have it downloaded as soon as it’s available in the morning.

As an example, if you get the daily edition of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, you can set up a schedule where your Treo can download the Audible programs via the cell network to your Treo so that it’s ready when you wake up. You no longer need to do the manual download and transfer at the computer. This can be extremely convenient, especially when traveling. Ever since I started using Audible Air, I no longer download my Audible files via the computer anymore. Or, if you want to download a particular digitial audio book, you can schedule Audible to download a certain segment or section of the book to your Treo rather than the entire book which can be quite a large file. And when you’re almost finished listening to that segment, you can schedule Audible to download the next segment so that you’ll have it ready. Very convenient.

The great thing about this Audible Air service is that you no longer need a computer to download your Audible periodicals.

(Edited Feb 7, 2009). Aside from Palm PDAs, smartphones, Audible is available and supported on a vast selection of mp3 players and cell phones. Check out this link for the software that will work on your mobile device. This link gives you more info on what phones are supported

Also, this link gives you instructions on how to install AudibleAir (it is supported on many cell phones including Symbian OS phones, Blackberrys, iPods, iPhone, and other mp3 players and cell phones)

Proprietary audio format

Audible is only provided in their own digitally encrypted audio file format, which is .aa and can only be played using their Audible player. Due to licensed copyright protection of the content for their content providers and authors, Audible is unable to provide the audio content in mp3 format. Such measures are taken by Audible to prevent a customer from passing a duplicate digital audio file to another listener so that they can listen for free. So, even if you have an Audible book and pass it on to a friend, they can’t play it because it’s digitally encrypted and can only play on your activated device.

One somewhat easy way you can have the audio book in a different compressed audio format is to first burn the Audible file onto a CD and then rip it out and convert it to whatever compressed audio format (mp3, ogg, wma, etc) you wish. The other way is to stream the audio and record it in your preferred audio format. You will have to do your own research for answers due to copyright issues that I do not wish to get into. Please don’t ask me as I will NOT be providing a reply.

Audible file formats

There are a maximum of four different quality formats you can choose from.

Format 1 (PC only) quality is similar to that of a telephone.
Format 2 quality is similar to that of AM Radio.
Format 3 quality is similar to that of FM Radio
Format 4 quality is similar to mp3 music.

(It looks like format 2 and 3 are the typical format files available now.)

With as the quality of the sound file improves, so does the size of the file. Here’s a link to Audible regarding its audio formats of Audible files. So, if you want to fit as many Audible files (just like with mp3s) on your SD card, you’ll have to give up on sound quality and vice versa.

Depending on an hour of a daily periodical like Wall Street Journal or New York Times, the size of the file will be approximately 1MB in Format 1, 3MB in Format 2, 6MB in Format 3, 12MB in Format 4.

XM radios shows, podcasts and rss feeds

Audible now offers various radio and TV shows including some from XM Satellite Radio for downloading. Currently, they have Opie & Anthony and The Bob Edwards show and much more. You can purchase individual shows or via monthly subscriptions. They also offer podcasts as well.

Audio magazines, newspapers and radio shows are also offered as podcasts. So, if you already subscribe to various podcasts and have everything set up, you can easily subscribe to your periodicals from Audible as podcasts as well so that when you download your other podcasts that the Audible material gets downloaded as well. The podcast file is in Audible’s .aa format, so you would need the Audible player or Audible Manager with Windows Media filter to listen to it.

Since podcasting is available, that means that RSS/XML feeds are available too. They offer various feeds of new audio programs, best sellers of various categories, etc.

(Edited Dec 13th, 2005) Hmm. Shortly after I’ve written this posting on Audible and done the flash simulations, they’ve revamped their website and their subscription plans. I will still provide the old subscription information (clearly noted) as well as the current pricing structure. Maybe sometime in the future, I’ll re-do the simulations although most of what’s shown is very similar.

Audible Listener plans

Audible has recently made some changes to their membership plans (effective April 5th, 2007). They have eliminated the old yearly $9.95 AudibleListner basic membership and introduced a cheaper introductory membership price of $7.49 for their AudibleListener Gold (one free audio credit per month) for the first 3 months, and $14.95 thereafter. As well, their AudibleListener Platinum has been changed to include 2 free audio credits per month.

Audible Listener Gold $7.49 per month for first 3 months, $14.95 thereafter

- You get one audio credit towards any Audible ebook, periodical, radio show.

- A complimentary daily issue of New York Times or Wall Street Journal (ie. complimentary monthly periodical subscription).

- 30% Off of all digital audio programs

- Free hand-picked audio downloads each week

Or, you can subscribe to the Audible Listener Gold membership on an annual basis for $149.50, a savings of $29.90, or in other words, you’re paying only 10 months for a year’s subscription.

- Receive a total of 12 credits (available immediately after purchase)

Audible Listener Platinum for $22.95 monthly

- Receive a total of 24 credits (2 per month)

- A complimentary daily issue of New York Times or Wall Street Journal.

- 30% Off of all digital audio programs

- Free hand-picked audio downloads each week

Or subscribe to the annual Audible Listener Platinum membership for $229.50 a year

- Receive a total of 24 credits (available immediately after purchase)

Audible Education

Note. If you are a student or professor and have a *.edu email address you can also sign up for the AudibleEducation program and get 20% all audio programs.

++++++++
THE FOLLOWING ARE OLD PRICES AND SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS FOR COMPARISON ONLY. THEY’RE NO LONGER VALID
Monthly Audible memberships

Basic Listener ($14.95 a month)

-one audiobook download

-one audio periodical (magazine, newspaper or radio program) download

Premium Listener ($21.95 a month)

-two audiobook downloads

Ultimate Listener ($119 for 12 audiobook credits)

This membership is a bit different from the others. You pay $119 upfront and then have a maximum of 2 years to download 12 audio books. With this membership, you are entitled to a 20% off all additional audio book purchases and 50% off periodical subscription purchases. You have a maximum of 2 years to download all 12 audiobooks and take advantage of additional savings with additional purchases.
THESE ARE OLD PRICES AND SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS FOR COMPARISON ONLY++++++++

Ongoing promotions

Audible Kids offers audio material for the younger listeners

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Limited Time Offer - Get Your first 3 Months at Audible for $7.49/month

Try Audible Now and Get TWO FREE DOWNLOADS!

Try Audible Now and Get 2 Free Audiobook Downloads with a 14 Day Trial. Choose from over 50,000 Titles.

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Sample before you buy

For each Audible book or periodical, there is a link to a sample clip of it so you can have a better idea of what to expect. Sometimes, the narrator’s voice or his approach to the material may be enough to deter you from going ahead with the purchase. I always take the time to listen to the sample first before purchasing since it can be helpful. Before taking advantage of some of the free audible files they offer from time to time, you will need to open up an account (it’s free). Sign up here.

You’d also need to download and install the necessary software to be able to listen to the audio file: Palm Audible player for your Palm device to play the Audible files (or equivalent program for your device), Palm Audible Manager to manage the downloading of your Audible files onto your computer and later to transfer to your device, Windows Media filter (if you wish to listen to the Audible files on your computer without the Audible player), Audible Air for smartphones with internet access and other Audible software specific for your hardware. These can all be downloaded from here

To provide you with an idea of how the Audible Player operates on a Palm device (keep in mind this simulation was done on a Zire 71 so it’s an older version of the software), here’s a couple simulations.

Simulation of the Audible Player on the Palm

Alternative links: Photobucket

The simulation will play through to the end unless I’ve inserted a pop up note to explain specific points.

To continue playing the simulation, press the button.
To go back to a previous paused segment, click on the button.
To pause the simulation at any time, press the button. To continue after it’s paused, press the button again.
To scroll forwards or backwards in the simulation, click anywhere on the left (to go back earlier in the simulation), or right (to go forward in the simulation) on the progress bar.

This simulation demonstrates how the Audible player program works on the Palm. I will demonstrate how to navigate around the program and showing the menus.

This next simulation will demonstrate using the Audible Manager program on your windows computer and transfer a downloaded Audible file to a Palm device.

Simulation of how to download an Audible file and transfer to the Palm

This simulation will demonstrate how to download an Audible file to your computer via the Audible Manager. Then, I will show how to transfer the downloaded Audible file over to the Palm as well as a quick overview of the menus in the Audible Manager program.

Free Audible files

To get you started, why not open up a free Audible account and download some of the free audio files available? I have mentioned many (too many to list here) free Audible files you can download and enjoy to get a good feel of what Audible offers.

This is Audible is a bi-weekly program that is offered free of charge. It’s offered on the XM Satellite Radio network and at Audible and provides a very interesting podcast that covers everything book related. There are weekly best seller list countdowns covering different genres and themes, interviews with authors, celebrities discussing material related to books. They also offer snips and samples of audiobooks that may interest you. You can subscribe to a monthly or a yearly subscription, very much like any other periodical subscription. Simply add the subscription to your shopping cart and check out. You will not be billed for these subscriptions.

To get the subscription, simply go to Audible.com and search for This is audible or Josephine Reed (past host) or Kim Alexander (current host) and then add the subscription to your cart. Or, here’s a link to a search for Josephine Reed or for Kim Alexander

From time to time, Audible offers free Audible programs or interviews. If you subscribe to their rss feed for the free audio, you can easily be notified when there’s something new. I also periodically provide a posting of FREE audible files. You can look through the postings via the free-audible and audible tags. They do from time to time, remove the file without notice or make it a paid product so some of the files which I posted previously about may no longer be free or available.

It costs nothing to set up an account and you periodically you can get some stuff to listen to, in addition to the bi-weekly This is Audible and Le Show programs.

Daily email notification of new issues

With the new version of Audible Manager, the automatic download no longer happens (or it’s disabled from Audible’s end) so opening Audible Manager no longer downloads the new issues automatically. But, the email notification are still available and you will be notified of new issues whenever it’s available. In the email, there’s always a like to the recent subscriptions in your account, or you can bookmark the recent subscription link to get to a page of all your Audible subscriptions. You can access to the email notification by going to Audible’s My Subscription Emails page where you can uncheck the email notification box as well as checking on when your periodical subscriptions expire and renew them if you wish.

Hello Audible Subscriber,The latest edition of your subscription, WSJ 08-17-2009 Morning Read, is waiting for you in the My Library section of audible.com Go to http://www.audible.com/recentsubscriptions/ to listen or transfer the audio file.

In this edition:Here’s a creative way to make the best use of your morning commute: listen to The Wall Street Journal. Each morning, you’ll get the must-hear stories from the Journal’s front page, as well as the most popular columns and briefings from Marketplace, Money & Investing, and more. And, every Friday, you’ll get a bonus delivery: features, columns, and reviews from the Weekend Journal.

If you’d like to discontinue this notification, go to http://www.audible.com/mysubscriptionemails/.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call our customer service department at (888) 283-5051 or send us email at customer_service@audible.com.

STATUS CHANGES:The email was sent to [your Audible username] (your email address)

If you prefer not to receive email from us, or you got this in error, please send an email to remove@audible.com from the email address you want removed.

Here are my observations:

First of all, I have gotten an Audible membership from my first days of owning my Palm Zire 71 back in 2003 and still subscribe to it. As well, I am also an affiliate. So, you can understand my bias towards Audible. With that out of the way, I will continue with my observations.

Obviously, I am impressed with what Audible offers, not only with regards to the selection of audiobooks and titles, but by the expanded range of audio materials available. I can listen and learn, or be entertained or be informed. I think that the next step for Audible could likely go beyond audio but also visual, offering a visual and audio experience. Especially nowadays with smartphones and even regular cell phones capable of playing videos, why not?

Likes

Quick immediate listening

I like that I can quickly and easily purchase and download any audio book either on my computer at home, work, or anywhere and be able to play it on my device immediately! There’s no need to wait hours, days, or even weeks for the audiobook to arrive. Once it’s paid, I can listen to it on my computer, on my iPod, smartphone, etc. And all purchased audiobook or material in my account is mine forever. Even if I don’t continue paying for a paid subscription for a year or two, if I log back into my account, I can access it and listen to it. It’s mine to keep. Audible file can be bookmarked much like hard copy books.

Lightweight and takes up no physical space or weight

Audible books, being a digital file doesn’t take up any physical space or add any extra weight, unlike hard copy books. I can load lots of books on my smartphone without adding any extra weight. What’s required is storage memory which can be either the device’s storage memory (RAM), or flash memory in the form of Secure Digital or other similar flash memory cards. By loading the books on an expansion flash memory card, I can load as many as I want, only limited by the number of flash memory cards I have.

Unlimited listening and downloads of purchased books

All purchased audio files are mine forever. Even if I stop subscribing to any Audible monthly membership, I can always log in and download it or listen to it on my computer.

AudibleAir makes downloading audiobooks easy

AudibleAir, although I didn’t go much into details in this review offers a very convenient way to access, download and manage all the purchased Audible files. I can easily set a schedule to download my daily periodical at a specific time each day and have it ready for listening when I wake up. With AudibleAir, there’s no longer a need to be tied to the computer to download the Audible files. Simply launch AudibleAir and download it directly on the device and listen! It can’t get any better!

On the other hand, Audible could be improved.

Dislikes

Bugs and glitches in older Audible Player version

First, there are a few glitches with regards to the older devices and older versions of the Audible Player. I am aware that it’s almost like beating a dead horse but considering a lot of readers still may be using older Palm devices, I am providing some info that may be helpful for those who are using the older devices.

On my old Zire 71, the newer versions of Audible Player (with the lighter green background as opposed to the older dark blue background) crashed on the device. I can’t remember which version I was using (since I’m no longer using the Zire 71) but I’d suggest you stick with an older version of Audible player if a newer version crashes on your device. Of course, keep a backup of your device and the software before loading a newer version.

Also, from time to time, for whatever reason, Audible may not be able to blank or turn off the screen. There will be a pop up window saying that “This feature is not supported on your handheld”. What I usually do is exit out of the program and come back and try it again. Usually, trying to enable the screen blanking then will usually work. If it doesn’t, try again. That’s another glitch of the Audible player.

One other thing that I did notice which at one point was annoying me was that transferring an Audible file from my computer to the Palm would not occur. The program will get stuck on “Initiating transfer” and eventually it will time out. The only way to get out is to exit the program, which normally means that I have to go into Windows’ Task manager and end the process. Most times, by closing and re-opening the Audible manager, I can get it to work again. I guess it’s a bug or glitch that only happens once in a while. At one point, I ended up putting the expansion flash memory SD card into my card reader and then using Audible manager to transfer it to that, instead of the Palm, and if the usual transfer method isn’t working, this may be a workaround.

One more glitch or something I’ve noticed is that the Weekend Edition of my Wall Street Journal doesn’t seem to show up in Audible Manager, even when it’s downloaded to the computer, and all other subscriptions show up fine. So, what I have to do is manually “add” them to the Audible manager window so that it shows up so that I can then transfer them to the Palm. Seems strange when it’s there, but Audible Manager doesn’t display it unless I manually “add” them. To “add” the files, you have to go into the File, Tools, and select Add Audio Files. Then, find and select the files you want to add.

If something isn’t working, I’d first try to reload an older backup archive of the program into the Palm and see if things work. If not, try re-loading and re-installing Audible manager and see if it works. Most times, things should work.

At one time, the Audible Player didn’t have the screen blanking feature but it seems that the latest version that I have on my Treo 650 now automatically will blank after 30 seconds or so. Or, I can either press the Power on/off button (red Phone button) or use OffStroke to turn off the Palm and Audible will still continue to play while the screen and the keypad lights are off. In order to access Audible, I obviously have to “turn” the Treo back on. Cool. At least I can now conserve battery when I’m playing Audible.

Again, these observations apply to the older versions of Audible Player.

Screen blanking or auto off doesn’t always occur

On a somewhat newer version of Audible Player on my Windows Mobile Treo 750, I do find that sometimes, the screen doesn’t blank or turn off for battery conservation. Again, exiting out and loading it again, or even doing a soft reset usually works.

Maximum Volume may not be loud enough

Since I tend to listen to my Audible files on my Treo 750 without headphones or headsets, I’d like to be able to hear it anywhere. Unfortunately, the maximum volume level, although it is somewhat a good level, isn’t as loud as I’d like. It would be nice to be able to be provided with a volume boost feature that some mp3 softwares offer.

Proprietary audio format with DRM

Although I understand their reasoning behind their decision to not release the audiobook in mp3 format for copyright issues, it does limit and restrict how I can enjoy the audiobook. Had the books been offered in mp3 format, I could easily use any other mp3 player software to play the files rather than be stuck with Audible Player. Even though Audible Player works well, it is very simple and restrictive and I only wished there were more features available.

Here are some suggestions for Audible both the service and the program:

Access to Audible from smartphone via mobile version of website

I would like to be able to access Audible from my smartphone and be able to make my purchases from the smartphone. Right now, the website doesn’t render properly on my Treo 750. I’d like Audible to provide a mobile version of the website something like m.audible.com or something like that which is optimized for smartphones so that I can navigate around without everything looking squished or off to one side or another. So I’m limited to making the purchases from computer first and then access and download from my Treo using AudibleAir. It would be nice to be able to make it a one step process on the smartphone

Offer visual support material for educational programs

Expand Audible to support visual material. This could be especially helpful with educational titles like language learning, where I could be reading or viewing what word or phrase I’m learning and hearing

Web access interactivity with Audible’s servers for word, reference look ups, etc

Expand Audible to support wireless interaction with Audible. What I mean is being able to access a dictionary feature to look up a word, or especially with classic literature, being able to look up the footnote or important information on a passage. This could work if there’s a direct connection to Audible’s server.

Bring back the choice of discounted bulk audiobook purchase (ie. Ultimate Listener)

One last suggestion is to bring back the old Ultimate Listener program where I can purchase the audiobook credits upfront and use them when I want rather than be stuck with only the monthly Gold and Platinum subscription.

Aside from what’s mentioned, I really love Audible.

Review Summary

Audible is far more than simply an audiobook store and service. It offers a huge selection of audio materials that appeals both young and old, male and female and across a wide spectrum of interests and tastes. It not only entertains, but educates, connects and inspires. Unlike a physical hard cover or digital ebook, audiobooks can be enjoyed without a lot of energy usually involved with reading. You don’t need to be “reading” with your eyes but be able to enjoy and relax while you’re sitting back or doing anything. The files can be loaded on many smartphones, cell phone and portable music devices. Once purchased, they are yours forever even if you don’t subscribe to any paid memberships. The AudibleAir program makes downloading and managing all your Audible files a breeze. You no longer need to be connected to a computer to download and transfer your files. Simply launch AudibleAir and it’s downloaded right on your device. It’s that ease of use and accessibility that really appeals to me personally and why I continue to use and subscribe to Audible.

Other audiobook resources

When I originally used Audible it was the main ebook download service available but it seems now there are many other places that offer digital audio books. SimplyAudiobooks offers audio books for rental by mail, something similar to what NetFlix offers for DVDs where you pay a flat fee each month for unlimited rentals of audio books. But, they also offer a download service, but in Windows Media format and has DRM encryption. But, this does look very promising. Also, Apple’s iTunes offers audio book downloads as well. And I’m sure that there are many more that I haven’t found or mentioned.

As well, there are many audio book vendors that offer audio books on cassette or CDs like Fictionwise offers some audio books for purchase, as well as Blackstone Audio Books, Audio Editions, ISIS Publishing, Books On Tape and many other traditional hard cover publishers are providing digital format whether in the visual or audio format.

There are also places where you can get audio books for free. Project Gutenberg, LibriVox, AudioBooksForFree.

If anyone knows of more places where you can get audio books free or for purchase, please put a comment to this blog so that I can add it in so that everyone else benefits. Thanks!

Audible is also offered to those in the UK via their Audible.co.uk portal and they’re also available for those in Germany via their Audible.de portal.

Hopefully, I’ve provided some information to help someone who has never experienced Audible to at least try it. I enjoy the service and think it’s a great way to keep in touch with the news and keeping myself informed and entertained.

Thanks for visiting and supporting Palm Discovery. If you are not reading this article from Palmdiscovery.com, the website you are reading it from is guilty of copying and posting my content without consent. Please visit Palm Discovery for the original source of the material.

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