NOTE: the prices listed online fluctuate over time
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
Downpour: Downpour, like Audible below, is subscription-based. For $12.99 per month you get one credit. If used wisely the credit can go a long way. For instance, if you were to get with the one credit Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer, you’ve just invested in over 55 hours of narrative time. That’s like paying someone 23 cents per hour. Twelve credits a year amount to a $156 commitment, but you can cancel at any time, and get only one credit at a time. This is the same sum as an audible gold membership, so it really is quite even. What I love about Downpour is that they have more indie and hidden gems that are not quite so mainstream, and they constantly have sales going on. I also appreciate that they have a connection to Soundcloud (through Blackstone Audio) where you can access some of their audiobooks, and have many academic affiliations. It’s a great platform if you enjoy newer audiobooks, and well-done classics.
Audible as is probably most commonly known, Audible is owned by Amazon. Audible, like Downpour, has a similar price range for their credits and audiobooks: $14.95 per credit, and $150 for a yearly gold membership (which makes the long-term membership a better deal). As an avid audiobook listener I found this membership price to be worth it. I made the mistake of cashing in most of my credits near the beginning of the year, and did not pace myself, but then I found out you can exchange audiobooks all year round! You get access to podcasts on almost every topic under the sun including TED talks, and my personal favourite: Orson Welles broadcasts. The variety of lifestyle, literature, science, as well as vintage podcasts given free entry is worth every penny. There are also dramatizations of classics like Jane Eyre. The podcasts here are called Channels and you can tap into almost every topic. There’s one on dialogues between MacArthur Genius Grant winners, or stand up comedians…and everything in between. The audiobooks themselves are of new books and old/classics. Sometimes a famous actor will read an audiobook which is always nice to hear. My personal favourites are Nick Offerman and Richard Armitage. I am an audible believer so I would strongly recommend a membership, but again, it’s only worth it if you do use it. According to my stats I listen to about 15 hours per month. This is a sum of me listening while shelving books, while painting, while commuting etc.- GraphicAudio: The quality of the audiobooks on this is top notch. Their tagline is “a movie in
your mind” which is quite possibly the best descriptor for how their audiobooks are produced. GraphicAudio includes a few free short stories, and has discount codes for sets, or other deals from time to time. The content is by far the most different from all the rest. They have obscure comic books, graphic novels, fantasy series. It’s like entering an entirely different new world. It is a bit pricey and sometimes one can find discounts as I mentioned, but if this is your niche, it’s worth it. - Libro.FM:
this service while it works with credits similar to Audible will give 100% of the proceeds to an independent bookstore of YOUR choice. You can select your favourite local bookstore near you or one from somewhere around the world. I find this is a wonderful way to show support to your local businesses particularly when times are hard. The selection is not as wide as audible, though it has some books audible doesn’t. Again, this is more of a way to give back and show support.
FREE (Through Library and Public Domain)
OneClickDigital: This audiobook program is a hybrid of the two above. It is a system connected to the public library. You can download the app on your phone or tablet, or get an online account and connect to it using your library card. It has books that are a mix of new and old but it won’t have brand new releases right away in form of audio. OneClickDigital also has eBooks in addition to eAudiobooks. Because it works through the library system you must “check out” an audiobook meaning, once downloaded, it will remain on your phone for a limited amount of time, as if it was a library book. Nothing stops you from checking it out again. It’s a good balance of book selections and it’s free, so long as you have a library card.
- OverDrive: OverDrive works like OneClickDigital through the public library. I found that OverDrive is connected to more public libraries than OneClickDigital and has wider selections.
- Librivox.org: This was my introduction to the audiobook world back in high school. This organization runs on volunteers from all over the world reading and recording books on demand. Because it’s free and volunteer-run, it can only cover books that are in the public domain (not under copyright). It’s basically the ‘project Gutenberg’ of audiobooks. The pros are: free audiobooks. However, the cons are: most books won’t include new releases or even relatively
new ones (like 10-20 years old), and because it’s a volunteer-run audiobook program, sometimes you will get haptics, coughing, different volumes of recording, static, etc. For instance, some books that are longer like Ulysses will get various volunteers from all over the world and one chapter will sound awful, one will sound great, one will have a lot of background noise, some accents won’t be understandable, etc. I personally liked this ‘con’ because it felt like I was being read to by a friend and I enjoyed those human errors. However, sometimes it’s a bit frustrating like when reading a play because every character is played by a person who is not in the same room and every line is very choppy and has a delay.
Other Resources for Audiobooks:
Pay/Digital:
- iTunes
- HooplaDigital
Pay/Physical
- Bookstores like: Chapters/Indigo (Canada), Barnes and Noble (US), Blackwells (UK) have physical CDs.
- Used bookstores like BMV often have discounted prices for the same CDs only they are of older books.
Free Digital:
- Typing “audiobook” on YouTube often leads to free chapters
- Tor.com often has free audiobooks for individual short stories featured on their website. These are most likely to be Science Fiction and Fantasy.
- OpenCulture has over 900 free audiobooks in various formats, but like librivox they are in the public domain and can only have books out of copyright
- Escape Pod – Science Fiction podcast with frequent readings
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