Audible - am I missing the point?

[JingleSmell]

So I pay a monthly fee to access the mediocre stuff? Then get 1 credit per month for the decent stuff?

Long car journey coming up and I wanted to listen to some comedy things. So I could download one comedy show with my 1 credit, right?

Then I have to pay more on top of the monthly fee if I want to listen to more??

It feels a lot tbh.

I love Audible. I suffer a lot with severe anxiety and it's the only thing keeping me sane. I've just listened to The Crocodile Bird by Ruth Rendall, which was free. It was a reasonably good story. As others have said, it's a lot cheaper than buying books. And since I have a toddler, I can't even always read my Kindle as much as I would like.

I use both library and audible apps, they serve different purposes for me. The library app isn’t a straight swap for audible.

OP, streaming apps like Spotify have comedy content if that is specifically what you’re looking for, have you tried that?

I love it too and have purchased about 300 titles. As you say, it keeps me sane while pottering in the house or garden, driving, attempting to get to sleep.

I buy the credits in bulk for the discount and also use the free content. It's well worth the investment.

I love it. I buy the extra credits (£18 for 3), use the Included catalogue and buy lots in the sale when I see things I like. I do spend a fair bit on it but got annoyed with Borrowbox as they often didn’t have what I wanted available. The cost is worth it for me. I listen to around 5 books a month.

I'm another gardening audible listener. Happy hours spent pricking out seedlings or picking blackcurrants while listening to a murder mystery.

I love Audible and really look forward to my monthly credit. I listen to a lot of free books too. I listen almost daily and always when I'm cleaning or driving.

I agree that the search function is not very good though.

I can't use Libby as I'm not in UK.

Yes, Audible is primarily books not podcasts. It’s not set up as a podcast service, they have just added a few as extra content.

There’s absolutely loads of podcasts though - what do you like, perhaps we can recommend some?

I don't like audible, I don't feel like it is good value for money, you only really get one book per month (which I would finish within about 2 days). Audible plus is really user-unfriendly, it's really hard to search Nd quite limited.

If you're after podcasts I would choose Spotify, there are hundreds on there it can be free or subscription with no ads.

For books I use Scribd. Unlike Audible, your subscription means you can access the library of audiobooks - and you don't have to pay extra for them. You aren't limited to one book per month like audible.

I love Audible and find it really great value. I buy one book per month with my credit, usually around 15-20 hours worth of recording, which sorts out my trips to and from work.

Just use your local library. Ours uses BorrowBox.
It's free

Most countries will have online library resources?

Audible is definitely more a book thing than a podcast thing, but there are loads of podcasts on there, searching from within the UK. I tend to use my credits for long, unabridged books - usually between 10-30 hours each, and I have a 24 book annual membership.

Have you gone to the webpage for audible and searched through there? It’s easier to find things than in the app. Try literally searching for “podcast” and then go to filter and filter on comedy and humour. I’ve just done this from in the UK and it’s saying over 30,000 results. Some say “included” but they all seem to be available just to play.
It might be you have a different set of content available than if you were Uk based. Or maybe the search on the app isn’t very good. Try this, see what you get?

On libraries - I have tried them for audiobooks but I found the selection woeful compared to Audible. But I’m very fussy about what I want to listen to so a huge catalogue helps.

I'll have to read this thread again after coffee.

I don't remember why, because I'd been avoiding it firever, but I signed up to the the free trial -fatal if course as I didn't cancel & so it's costing me £7.99 per month and if I cancel I lose my credits.

I haven't been able to use my credits as I can't find anyone I can bear to listen to.

What do you like? What do you dislike?

Do you like audio content in general - radio. Etc?

Those questions were for @SkylightSkylight

Also you should be offered the option to ‘pause your subscription’ if you click to cancel (they try hard to retain you) and I think that preserves your credits if you wanted to try that and stop paying monthly - think it’s a 3-month pause.

I love my audible subscription and use it almost every day.
There's are lots of great free podcasts and books.

I love Titting About with French and Saunders.

The Stephen Fry history series are great too.

And there are plenty of free audiobooks.

You can return a book you’ve used a credit on when you’ve finished listening to it and then use that same credit to buy something else, sometimes when I’ve used up all my credits for the month I need to ask in the chat thing for them to return it for me but they always do it! Also if you go to cancel your subscription the first time it usually offers you 3 more credits or half price for a few months……..
It is a bit annoying if you want to listen to comedy things that have a lot of episodes like Just A Minute etc, because each episode seems to be worth 1 credit….. but it adds on another credit each month (so after 3 months you’ll have 3 credits and so on), so once you’ve had Audible for a while you can have a few things on the go you just have to keep returning and swapping. Sorry if that’s all a bit obvious but that’s what I didn’t quite understand about it at first and now I love it!

You get to buy a book - any book, even new releases - for 7.99 a month PLUS you get all the free content as well.

I’m baffled that people think this isn’t good value.

When I look up eg Just a Minute, it’s £7.99 or one credit for eg two complete series, or a collection of episodes - ranging between 7 and 18 hours per credit. Not just paying per episode.

I would say you shouldn’t really just always return books after you’ve listened to get the credit back unless you really didn’t like it - the author has to pay the royalty back to audible if you do this.

Another option is xigxag - they are a U.K. B Corp and no subscription. Better prices too, as it’s only 7.99 for the first five books then prices drop.

Yes, when you return a book you’ve listened to you are effectively taking the author’s and audiobook creator’s money from them. Audible/Amazon don’t bear the cost (in case anyone doing this thinks it’s OK because they’re just a big company) - they take it from what they pay the authors and narrators. As most of them earn very little, please don’t abuse it as a system if possible.

I'm considering audible at the moment too, and finding this thread useful.

I believe that if you cancel audible you can keep the books you've bought. But is that only if you've downloaded them onto a device?

Because everyone's now used to the Netflix/Spotify business model where a similar monthly fee buys you unlimited access to their entire catalogue.

You don’t have to have downloaded them onto a device - your account remains active even though your membership is cancelled and you’re not paying, and anything you bought can be downloaded again to any device whenever.

help.audible.com/s/article/will-my-audiobooks-disappear-after-i-ve-listened-to-them?language=en_US

@pigsinoodies yeah I guess you’re right. But these are books!