Audio books

[Coldoutthere45]

Just discovered I love audio books after hearing a couple of stories on the radio by chance.
Is there a way to get these for free or cheaply rather then spending a fortune on audio books?
I have Apple Music but new to audio books so don’t have a clue- thanks!

Your local library may have a digital library of ebooks and audiobooks that you can access. BBC Sounds has plenty of audiobooks, BBC 4 Extra is an archive channel for spoken content. You'll find plenty of free fiction podcasts of varying quality on the podcast app of your choice. I use the Apple app, and it's quite good for recommending new shows.

My library uses the Libby app. It doesn't have a brilliant selection, but it is free. I also use iPlayer a lot.

It would be completely illegal to put audiobooks on You Tube, so definitely don't look there for a whole range of listening treats.

Internet archive has a whole load of stuff on it, but seems to be a bit broken at the moment.

For classics and other oop books read by volunteers Librivox, access through their website or on youtube. In fact there are lots of audiobooks on youtube, as previous poster has...suggested. Also some legit free audiobooks on Spotify. An Audible subscription costs (there are different plans) but then as well as being able to buy books cheaply with your credits, they have a large number of free-for-members books and discounts.

BorrowBox
Get access through your local library

Also, if you have the Alexa app or speaker, she will read Kindle books out to you, in a rather robotic voice. So if you have kindleunlimited, or find a free one, that can be useful. It has to say "text to speech enabled" in the book details.

I used Libby and have a couple of library cards - one from Chicago library and one from my local library. I also use Audible and treat myself to a book once a month.

If you join audible, which is only about 8 pound per month, you get access to free books as well. BBC sounds has free audio books as does your local library.

Added to say for the eight pound subscription you get one free book per month.

Charity shops or car boot sales have loads, my dad gets them from there.

As PP have said definitely worth checking the local library. Also Audible has a special offer at the moment 3 months at 99p per month so worth giving it a try. You get 1 free book a month & unlimited access to the audible plus catalogue whilst subscribed.

Also Spotify also have audio books

I love my Audible account and have books that I re listen to over and again. Just to say that each credit might cost the same but the difference in value (reading time) is huge. Stephen Fry reading Sherlock Holmes for example is something like 70 hours and has to be downloaded in 4 parts (and is wonderful). But other novellas or children's books can be the same cost.

Spotify has a lot (but not all) audio books. I think they introduced a higher tier for unlimited listening, the premium subscription is a certain number of hours per month (that I’ve never managed to reach 😂).

As others have said, your library will likely have an app you can access for free. BBC sounds has a selection of audiobooks (mostly the classics) and Spotify, if you have a subscription for music, also has audiobooks.

I know you mean but that's misleading. For £7.99 a month you get 1 credit to buy any book. But you can also get any number of free books from amongst the "included free" list. If you buy 12 or 24 credits all at once the price per credit is much lower too.

@AudiobookListener yes you're right, thank you. It's one credit plus access to some free audio books, a lot of which I have listened to.