Are you looking for the best audiobook service? Are you going broke spending all of your money on audiobooks? Do you want to know where you can get free audiobooks? Are you looking for the most extensive library of audiobooks? Then, read on!
Amazon’s Audible
My favorite audiobook service is Amazon’s Audible which has the most extensive collection of audiobooks that I have encountered. As an added bonus, it will automatically track listening time. However, this is the most expensive format that I use to obtain audiobooks; therefore, I use this method as a last resort.
As of this blog post, Amazon offers several different plans (some of them have the same name but are different). It can be pretty confusing!
Audible Paid Subscription Plans
Plan 1: Audible Plus: This is $7.95 per month. It includes a selection of Audible Originals, audiobooks, sleep tracks, meditations, and podcasts.
Plan 2: Audible Premium Plus: This is $14.95 per month. It includes 1 Audible Credit per month and everything Audible Plus offers.
Plan 3: Audible Premium Plus (yes the same name as Plan 2!): This is $22.95 per month. It include everything from Audible Plus and 2 Audible Credits per month. This works out to $11.48 per Audible Credit.
Plan 4: Audible Premium Plan Annual – 12 Credits: This is $149.50 per year. It includes everything in Audible Plus and 12 Audible Credits. This works out to $12.46 per Audible Credit.
Plan 5: Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credits: This is $229.50 per year. It includes everything in Audible Plus and 24 Audible Credits. This works out to $9.56 per Audible Credit.
Beware! Audible credits do expire. They expire one year after the issue date.
What happens if you run out of credits? You can buy more. With some caveats. You can purchase a bundle of 3 additional Audible credits for $35 ($11.67 per credit). However, there are some rules. 1) You must have an Audible Premium Plus account for more than 30 days and 2) You must have less than 2 available credits in your account.
What does all this mean? If you read audiobooks like they are going out of style and want to pay the least amount of money per audiobook, the Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credit plan is the best plan for you. Any audiobook that is listed as less than $11.67, you should purchase in cash and save your Audible Credits for more expensive audiobooks.
For example, I was able to purchase the audiobook for Memoirs of a Geisha for $8.99 today after purchasing the ebook. May Readalong, here we come!
Scribd
Scribd is $9 per month (at the time of writing this blog post). It includes unlimited access to ebooks and audiobooks. Yes, unlimited access for less than the price of one credit on Audible! The downside is that the library of audiobooks is not as extensive as Audible. Additionally, some of the ebooks have not been accurate. For example, I was reading some poetry, and the ebook said that the word was “wild”; however, I was listening to the author read the poetry and located the source material. The word was actually “wind.” This might seem like a small issue; however, I also don’t want to appear a fool when I quote literature, and it turns out I had a corrupted copy. Words matter. There is a big difference between the road not taken and the road taken.
In terms of quality, the audiobooks on Scribd are of the same quality as those on Audible. Scribd is easy to use and permits users to experience content through their website and also a mobile phone app.
Libby
Libby is the best free audiobook service that I have experienced. It is a free app through the local public library which offers free ebooks and audiobooks. This is a great way to access resources without having to drive to the library. Your library determines how many loans and holds that you can have at one time. My library is The Troy Public Library which is part of the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services. I am able to have 10 loans and 15 holds.
Additionally, each library determines the loan period. Using myself as an example, I have a two week loan period. A few days before the loan period expires and if no one else is waiting for the book, you can renew the loan on your book.
The downside of Libby is that you cannot preorder any books (meaning that if your favorite author is releasing a book later in the year, you cannot put a hold on the book). Additionally, for more popular books, there can be very long holds with wait times lasting several months. Personally, I find the limit on the number of holds to be particularly painful.
YouTube
One other free source of audiobooks is YouTube. Books that have entered the public domain can be read on YouTube. However, the quality of the YouTube video can be questionable at times.
Users can listen to the audiobook on the website or the mobile phone through an app.
Need audiobook suggestions? Check out the top 10 audiobooks article!
Do you want to learn a new reading technique that uses audiobooks? Check out the article on Immersion Reading!