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experiences with audible


guess

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I listen to alot of audio books. I like them because I don't have to sit when I do it. It helps motivate me to move. I like them when the weather is nice. I like to listen to them when I ride my bike, take a walk, do the elliptical. Motivates me to go longer because I want to find out what happens next. 

 

Audible is $15/month and you get 1 book. Are these new releases? What do I get for my service fee? Though I listen to audio books, I doubt I would need more than 12-15 audio books/year. However, I dont want to sign up for this if its just a fee, then I have to buy all the books I want anyway. Ill just buy the audio books or get some out of the library. 

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It's pretty great. It's an even better deal if you can afford to go yearly with an upfront cost and 12 credits all at once to use throughout the year. They are generally up to date on new releases. The only books I've ever had to wait on were those by James SA Corey and Daniel Abraham. Those took about 2 months after release to come up. They're not necessarily the biggest names int he industry so smaller authors can be laggy. They are not good on letting you know when the books that aren't up will be released. Most of the big releases, however they have on release date. The app is very easy to use and the user interface is good. it's infinitely better than ripping 40 cds from the library that's for sure. Probably a little better than the Overdrive software that most library systems use on digital content.

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I thought I read somewhere that your monthly token can't be used for all books. Are there many books that you can't use your token on?

 

How long can you stockpile tokens for? There may not be a book every month that I want and I may not want 12 audio books in a year. 

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There used to be some books that required 2 tokens back in the day but I think everything is only one token now. No restrictions. Rolling over tokens depends on which plan you are one. If you do the one year thing you can roll over 8 but it's all laid out on the page where you pick your package when you sign up.

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There used to be some books that required 2 tokens back in the day but I think everything is only one token now. No restrictions. Rolling over tokens depends on which plan you are one. If you do the one year thing you can roll over 8 but it's all laid out on the page where you pick your package when you sign up.

 

 

Yeah, there used to be some books that cost two credits, but in so far as i've seen, they've done away with that. I'm on the 2 credits/month plan and i'm able to stockpile up to 12 credits. I think the 1 credit/month plan lets you stockpile 6 or 8, not sure.

 

Also, the sync ability between devices is pretty good with audible, with one exception. The PC version doesn't synch between the mobile versions, so it wont sync your bookmark if you use PC and Android/iOS.

 

The only other MAJOR issue is the fact that it's pretty heavily DRM'd. You have to use their audible applications to listen to your books. Period. You're also limited in how many devices you can install it on, but the limit is pretty generous (to the tune of like 6-10 devices, i think), and you can reset/remove devices at any time, even if you don't have them anymore.

 

The only issue I have with the credit system is the fact that i feel like i'm wasting them if i spend them on books that are cheap/short.

 

They do occasionally hold promotions with credits, with like a "buy 2 get the 3rd free" thing using credits.

 

Edit:

All in all, I do recommend them, but it's not without its short comings. I also haven't tried their "whispersync" stuff, which is basically books that are set up so that it will sync your audio position to the book position on their kindle app, so you can go between reading and audio book at will.

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by bookmarks this means you can't sync where you left off? I have a droid phone, ipad, and a windows pc. So if i get to a certain point in an audiobook, i cant resume on another device? 

 

i have not used audiobooks? how hard is it to find where you left off? Can i get to a specific chapter easily? 

 

There are periods where I dont audio alot of books. I go into phases. can you set up email alerts saying 'you need to use or lose your tokens?' so i dont forget? 

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by bookmarks this means you can't sync where you left off? I have a droid phone, ipad, and a windows pc. So if i get to a certain point in an audiobook, i cant resume on another device? 

 

i have not used audiobooks? how hard is it to find where you left off? Can i get to a specific chapter easily? 

 

There are periods where I dont audio alot of books. I go into phases. can you set up email alerts saying 'you need to use or lose your tokens?' so i dont forget? 

 

Right, i mean where you stopped listening to it at. As far as I'm aware, the android and iOS version should sync properly (haven't tried it, but i believe they should). The only one that DOESN'T synch is the PC version. The android/iOS version sync your position to the cloud, and update accordingly. The PC version doesn't do this, and they acknowledge that it doesn't.

 

As far as how hard is it to pick up where you left off, it's pretty much just like any audio device/program. You have a slider of where you're at that you can drag around, so if you have your phone handy you can just look up where you were at and move the PC version there, but then you also have to perform the reverse and manually move your phone to the position you stopped at on your PC. It's not an ideal situation, but it works, i've done it before.

 

As far as expiring credits go, i've never gotten so close that i'm not entirely sure how it happens. I don't know if they send you a reminder or not. They DO send you a reminder when you get new credits.

 

 

Edit: it's also worth noting that there's free trial stuff everywhere. They sponsor a lot of things so you can try it for free pretty easily. You can also buy books ad-hoc, you don't need a subscription. You can just pay for whatever you want.

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My Family currently owns upwards of 300 Audio Books. I Really, Really Reccomend Audible. That being said, I Also reccomend Reading the Books themselves. I Listened to WoK and WoR, came to the Forums, and Started talking about Zeth Son SOn Vallano, or Yah kaved. If you listen to the books. You won't be able to Spell or recognize names.

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I only do audible because print Sanderson does not exist in Israel, at least not in English (and there is no way I am buying it in hebrew, as TLR was called "the emperor who rules" or somesuch), and my import ability is basically none. This means I take audiobooks, which are digital and therefore available, and since I hated GA (I won't rant on them here), I went here.

 

I love the readers, they are magnificent. I can only bless Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, and the other ones I have heard so far are good as well. This is so fun, and so emotional. I loved their Numuhumumakiaki'aialunamor, and their "I am hope" scene touched me so much I wept when I received my print Mistborn signed with that.

 

I must say on the names thing, that Yasnah, Elland, Kabsel, Reoden, Aioden, Sadious, and Doxin are all spellings I believed were true.

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