AFthfulJrney Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 (edited) I’m trying to figure out if the monthly audible cost is worth it. How does having an audible account differ from just using Overdrive provided by the library? I know with audible you own the book and with Overdrive you obviously don’t, but what other benefits are there to becoming an audible subscriber? Thanks so much in advance to all who take the time to respond! :) Edited January 26, 2018 by AFthfulJrney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 No waiting lists. Much better selection than either of my libraries have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 There are books that we just love to listen to, such as The Hobbit, and the Harry Potter books. Because we listen to them over and over it has definitely been worth it. My 10 year old listens to audible books via his echo when he's falling asleep at night, so that's another benefit. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbes Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Both my girls love to listen to favourite books over and over. Also, they listen in their rooms at quiet time from non-internet-connected devices (old iPod nanos), so overdrive wouldn't work as well. I do check overdrive first for something we might listen to together, but the selection isn't as good and I default to audible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earthmerlin Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 We still live in the dinosuar age and listen to CDs. Perhaps we should move on over to this century? Can anyone give the basics on Audible? Can you use it in the car, bedroom, family room, etc.?---like we do w/ our CDs? What devices are required to play it on? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 My son has an ipod that he can listen to Overdrive books on. He downloads them through the app from the library and can listen to them offline (we turn the internet off at night for his device). I do the same on my kindle fire. For audible, we listen on computers, on a Kindle Fire, through the Echo, and on my phone. You just need the audible app and you can download a book to listen to on the go. I like to listen through the bluetooth in my car using my phone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finlandia Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 There are books that we just love to listen to, such as The Hobbit, and the Harry Potter books. Because we listen to them over and over it has definitely been worth it. Same here. Our library has a really great selection of audiobooks, both on CD and Overdrive, and we utilize it a LOT. It is always the first place I look for audiobooks. Most of my audible purchases have been books that I've already listened to from the library and loved, and knew that they would be listened to over and over again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epicurean Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 (edited) We still live in the dinosuar age and listen to CDs. Perhaps we should move on over to this century? Can anyone give the basics on Audible? Can you use it in the car, bedroom, family room, etc.?---like we do w/ our CDs? What devices are required to play it on? You can burn the MP3 to CD using iTunes or the windows music player (I only use Apple so I don't know the name). The only catch is that you can only burn an audiobook to one set of CDs (they do this to ensure people aren't distributing the audiobooks illegally). If you use the MP3, you can use it on as many devices as you want. Edited January 26, 2018 by Epicurean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 (edited) My kids like using our echo dot to play audiobooks on it. "Alexa, play Winnie the Pooh from Audible." They also play them on their kindles and iPad and our Sonos speakers. There is no way we would listen to audiobooks if they weren't in the cloud. We don't even own a CD player anymore. We like the membership for access to sales. We use the credits but mostly use sales and whispersync deals. Edited January 26, 2018 by Meagan S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 (edited) The beauty of audible is cover flow choice in the kindle app so that a non-reader can select books. I have hundreds of books in Audible, because my ds is dyslexic. I use the National Library Service now to get us books, because he qualifies. I don't buy books that I can get easily through NLS. Overdrive isn't easy for me to use for him with his disabilities, so I paid for years to have the books show up on his kindle fire. We're on our 3rd fire I think, lol. Serious power uses. I would never pay for audiobooks through Audible if getting them through Overdrive works for you. If you're having trouble making it happen, then pay, yes. And, fwiw, on my audible account I do the 20 credits a year upfront and hawk the sales. They have all kinds of stuff that my ds may never really comfortable eye read, at the rate he's going, and it would be a total pain in the butt to be limited to Overdrive. But just see how it rolls, kwim? If Overdrive has what you want and your dc can physically use the app and get it to work, you're good to go. Edited January 26, 2018 by PeterPan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 We still live in the dinosuar age and listen to CDs. Perhaps we should move on over to this century? Can anyone give the basics on Audible? Can you use it in the car, bedroom, family room, etc.?---like we do w/ our CDs? What devices are required to play it on? For kids, your ideal tech is a kindle fire. Has better parental controls than an apple product, and it integrates beautifully with the Amazon ecosystem. You just buy the thing, turn it on, and it will download your stuff. Then you can turn on/off apps, audiobooks, the camera, whatever. Total control, easy peasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegs Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Like previous posters, we prefer audible over overdrive because DS likes to listen to the same things over and over. I treat our audio collection like a home library of books, only in a different medium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 We don't own a CD player anymore, either! Hmm unless there is one in my car. I don't actually know! Tangent: We also don't have a DVD player other than the Xbox, so for example this morning we watched They Might Be Giants ABC and Science DVDs using the Xbox. I wish those and the Studio Ghibli movies were available to purchase via Amazon Video. I never buy DVDs anymore, so a lot of curricula don't appeal to me if they include DVDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 You don’t have to have a monthly subscription to use audible. I buy books individually. Some of the older classic children’s literature is really affordable. All 14 hours of the Blue Fairy book was like $4.00, and we are listening to it a second time! So 14¢ an hour at this point! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 My kids listen to the books over and over, listen at bedtime, follow along with some of their harder literature, or even toggle back and forth between reading and listening. Totally worth it here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FawnsFunnyFarm Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 For those who have their kids use Fires to listen, are they listening on the kids accounts? I just bought my kids a kindle book with whispersync and I can't get it to play the audio portion on the kids accounts and read I couldn't "share" audible books with the kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bay Lake Mom Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 I have been very curious about Audible as well. I see the subscription is approx. $15 per month. You only have access to 1 book per month, if I'm reading this correctly. So... I see that many (if not all) of the books that I'd be interested in don't cost that much to simply buy. I bought Treasure Island today for about $10 I think. If you don't use your credit each month, does it roll over to the next month or do you just lose it? Is it really worth $15 per month? or is it better to simply buy the books you want? It seems cheaper to just buy. I guess I'm not understanding the benefit of the subscription... Anyone with experience that can share their knowledge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
librarymama Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 I sometimes accumulate credits and then spend them on more expensive books. I think you can have up to 6? At a time. I believe the Song of Ice and Fire series books were about $30 to $40 each, so I used my credits for those. Same with Joy of Science. But it is correct that you unlock the cheaper price as a member thus it isn't smart to use credits for books that are $10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) I have been very curious about Audible as well. I see the subscription is approx. $15 per month. You only have access to 1 book per month, if I'm reading this correctly. So... I see that many (if not all) of the books that I'd be interested in don't cost that much to simply buy. I bought Treasure Island today for about $10 I think. If you don't use your credit each month, does it roll over to the next month or do you just lose it? Is it really worth $15 per month? or is it better to simply buy the books you want? It seems cheaper to just buy. I guess I'm not understanding the benefit of the subscription... Anyone with experience that can share their knowledge? The subscription nets you 1 credit/month plus a 30% discount on all purchases for $15 a month. For anyone considering a subscription, I suggest you start by making an extensive wishlist. Then sign up for the subscription. Use the credits for anything on your wishlist that is over $15 with the discount, and use the discount for the rest. When the expensive choices on your list are dwindling, cancel. When you cancel, you will be given options not normally available to the public, including every-other-month credits for $15 while retaining the discount, and I think there’s often an option for a flat annual fee that keeps the discount with no credits. ETA: The credits do roll over, and you can accumulate several of them. I think the max is six, and then they will disappear. Edited January 28, 2018 by Jackie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bay Lake Mom Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 The subscription nets you 1 credit/month plus a 30% discount on all purchases for $15 a month. For anyone considering a subscription, I suggest you start by making an extensive wishlist. Then sign up for the subscription. Use the credits for anything on your wishlist that is over $15 with the discount, and use the discount for the rest. When the expensive choices on your list are dwindling, cancel. When you cancel, you will be given options not normally available to the public, including every-other-month credits for $15 while retaining the discount, and I think there’s often an option for a flat annual fee that keeps the discount with no credits. ETA: The credits do roll over, and you can accumulate several of them. I think the max is six, and then they will disappear. Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! I guess it could be beneficial if used as you described. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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