Can you tell me about Audible subscriptions?

[TheLastStarfighter]

DS(14) loves audio books and listens to them every night, but usually the same thing again and again. At the moment it’s Sherlock Holmes. In the past it’s been Harry Potter, Greek Myths, Roald Dahl etc. We’ve usually got them on CD, and then copied them to the iPhone Apple Books app.

I was thinking about getting him an Audible subscription, but find it’s not well explained how it works.

I think he would get a credit each month to choose a book with. Is that right? Do all books therefore cost one credit? (If buying on Apple they are anything from £5-£50).

If we stop the subscription, does he get to keep the books?

Does it work with family sharing? i.e. could his brother borrow the audiobook? It looks like you need to set up some kind of family account to do this? Does that mean everyone would need their own (paid) account linked together?

Is there any parental control on it? At his request, he wouldn’t want to purchase graphic content by mistake. I also wouldn’t want him accidentally spending a lot of money on books given I assume my card would be linked to it.

I should have said, it would be as a present, hence posting in Christmas 😁

If you close the subscription any existing purchases remain. I had my audible open for a period of time, I was after a particular book and opened an account for a discounted trial period which meant I ‘purchased’ the book I wanted with a credit, added some more and kept the account while it was free & then discounted. When I closed the account I still have all my books

If I remember correctly the credits are valid as one credit for one book, and the books could have different cash prices.

I’m not sure about sharing or parental controls

Posting as an addicted audible member.
If you buy subscription as one credit a month a year it’s £7.99 a month. So £96 a year. I buy the deal of annual membership at £109.99 a year which works out at £4.59 a credit so much much better value....
Audible also often run offers of 1 credit for 2 books or 3 books for 2 credits so good to have surplus credits to use on offers.
If/ when you stop audible, I understand you keep all the books Forever provided they are downloaded ( onto phone or iPad etc)
I listen to books on walks /in the car / doing tasks. You can get fiction, biography, motivational texts, non fiction etc. There are free books too. Not sure how it works with sharing - worth emailing them. I have only ever able to share one book per person not in my household as their “ starter” book as a taster. However I can listen to all my choices on my phone or iPad so would need to share same account on different devices.
My audible account is linked to my amazon account. I would assume that as far as parental controls go, you just need to know log in details so you can scan his audible library and therefore see what he has chosen - you can’t hide books you choose!
For a secondary age school kid, i could imagine them choosing audible books of GCSE English texts, course related history or political texts, world leader autobiographies, books on the magic of maths or science etc - all hugely enriching. Plus great to have cosy fiction books to listen to when unwinding at the end of the day in bed.

I adore having audible as part of my life 😁 and see each book as the same as maybe the same price as a coffee and bun, but providing hours of magic instead......
Any friends who have audible feel the same so I know it’s not just me!!

Sorry should have said
Yes one credit per book unless an offer.
Books might range from a few pounds to £30+
For example a credit can get a dickens book lasting 30 hours narrated by a top actor. Much cheaper than any other way

Thank you both. Really helpful.

@farnworth you suggested emailing them to ask about sharing - are the generally quite responsive and helpful?

Yes you get 1 credit a month and that gets you 1 book whether that book would usually be £5, £15, or £35, whatever.

Once downloaded you keep it forever even if you cancelled, but I believe that if you cancel and have unused credits then you lose the credits.

I have noticed that when I've finished listening to a book on there it gives me the option to "give" the book to someone else but I'm not sure how that bit works - I doubt you could get it back again without paying.

You can also use credits to gift other people books. So for example I had 2 credits last month and used one to gift a book to my friend for her birthday.

Sometimes audible do offers to download a free book as well, at the moment they are letting you download classic books each day eg Jane Austen.

Also if you go to stories.audible.com there are free children's books you can listen to without even having an account.

Yes, I have always found them good at replying so well worth trying to contact.

My husband and I sometimes share books - if he logs into my account on my phone I can download the books I want then log back into mine they are still there

Me and dd share our audible account, you can have multiple devices linked to the account.

I wish someone would get me this for Christmas!
I had one myself but cancelled it over lockdown as I wasn’t listening as much (I used to listen on my commute)

But, be warned if you do cancel it and there are any unspent credits you lose them!
I had two when I cancelled mine

You get access to lots of other content too which is great and makes it better value for money.

I found if you’re buying cheap books it’s less good value of course, but still typically works out quite well

We use borrowbox which is free from out local library. The DC have borrowed about 100 audiobooks from them for nothing. Ask your library

@farnworth how does the annual deal work out better than the monthly deal if it's more expensive?? What am I missing? I have monthly Audible but if I can get a book a month for practically half what I pay now I'd gladly pay annually - but it's more expensive ...??

I second seeing what your library offers, ours let's us borrow ebooks and audio books through the Libby/overdrive app for free with a library card. Not as many books as audible but still a decent selection. I use audible too (also interested in more info about annual deal! ) You can pause audible for a few months then resume which is less drastic than cancelling.

I love audible.

When you are low on credits, you can buy three for £18. So between that and the monthly membership fee, books cost an average of around £7 each. I must look into the annual membership though, which sounds like a better deal.

One thing that is particularly fantastic is their returns policy. If you don't like a book, you can return it and get your credit back, even if you've listened to the whole thing!

@PamsterWheel. The annual audible subscription (109.99) gives you 24 books a year, so twice the monthly subscription for only £14 extra. It’s a much better deal if you’re likely to listen to more than one a month.

I try to use my credits on “high value” books like the complete Sherlock Holmes collection (over 70 hours of content!) or the “Great Courses” series which are usually over 20 hours rather than shorter fiction books that I could get for less on Kindle or as a physical copy. Always worth checking if a series of books exists as a collection rather than wasting credits on single books also.

Once you’ve listened to a book you can also return it if you didn’t like it and get the credit back. So you can have more than one book a month.

@pamsterwheel
Sorry, I forgot to add the crucial detail.....
Monthly sub at £7.99 = one credit = 12 credits a year
Annual subscription at £109.99 = 24 glorious credits ! 😁

I love audible. I just gave dd my log in as she listens along to books she is studying at school.

I second borrow box... which doesn't help Christmas I know, but should you decide against Audible, it's worth knowing about. In on my 2nd book this week. Audible I found horrendously expensive.

@housemdwaswrong

I second borrow box... which doesn't help Christmas I know, but should you decide against Audible, it's worth knowing about. In on my 2nd book this week. Audible I found horrendously expensive.

It is very expensive if you buy individual books rather than subscribing.

The other good thing is that if you have any Alexa devices you can listen through them. It may well be possible to use other smart devices outside of the Amazon range too.

I agree about checking out your library too. I cancelled my Audible membership as everything I wanted to listen to was free from my library.

@catpooffender not do-able for me. My drive to work is an hour each way, driving to rehearsals prob 4 hours a week. Some audio books wouldn't even last a week of travel let alone anything else. Depends how often you listen to them i suppose. I've listened to over 40 since July, and started and discarded about another 15. That would have cost me a minimum of £150 probably a lot more even on subscription and I've paid nothing. I don't get to keep them of course, but could always re-borrow.

Each to their own, but that's the cost of my car insurance for a year.

BorrowBox is my local library's app. I've listened to over 10 books now, including fiction and non-fiction, and it's all been free. It's saved me somewhat during nightfeeds and rocking back to sleep sessions 😁

[quote housemdwaswrong]@catpooffender not do-able for me. My drive to work is an hour each way, driving to rehearsals prob 4 hours a week. Some audio books wouldn't even last a week of travel let alone anything else. Depends how often you listen to them i suppose. I've listened to over 40 since July, and started and discarded about another 15. That would have cost me a minimum of £150 probably a lot more even on subscription and I've paid nothing. I don't get to keep them of course, but could always re-borrow.

Each to their own, but that's the cost of my car insurance for a year.[/quote]
I guess it depends on the number of books you get through and what you're looking for. Some of the series I enjoy are not available at my local library. But there's nothing to stop someone joining audible for the monthly credits and using them for specific books they can't find at their library, and also accessing the library's selection.

Thanks all. The local library doen't give access to anything like Borrowbox or Libby unfortunately. I did check if I could maybe join the central library in Edinburgh and use it, but that didn't seem to be possible either - although I don't remember why now, so I will check again.

I didn't realise that you could give people audiobooks that you have purchased through Audible. I wonder if that might be a better option, and then I could take out the 24 books per year subscription myself and use it to agree and gift books to both DCs. That would calm DSs fear that he might accidentally purchase erotic fiction and my concern that he would end up spending credits on stuff that he wouldn't get best value from. They could be his credits, but I do the purchasing.

If you gift a book to someone, how do they receive and access it?

(You would think this info would be available from Audible, but it's not on their FAQs that I can find). Thanks so much for all the help!