Audible Vs Scribd Vs Audiobooks.com – Which is Better for Audiobook Lovers?
Audible Vs Scribd Vs Audiobooks.com – Which is Better for Audiobook Lovers?
Audiobooks are an extremely enjoyable and convenient way to absorb books. Unlike print books, you can listen to books while driving, exercising, doing chores around the house or other tasks. Audiobooks have been around in various formats for quite a while now.
First, there were books on tape, then books on CD. Although those formats are still available, the most popular way to listen to books now is to stream them on audio files. The concept is similar to Netflix streaming, where you can download a book to any device -your computer, smartphone, or MP3 player and listen to it at your convenience.
Several services offer audiobook subscriptions. There are various plans where you can download a certain number of books per month. Let’s look at three of the leading companies offering this type of service, Audible,Scribd, and Audiobooks.com. All of these companies have their pros and cons, and the one you prefer really depends on your preferences. Fortunately, all three offer free trials.
Audible, which Amazon owns, is the service that has the largest selection of books, more than 200,000. The wide selection alone is a good reason that many people choose Audible. Their choices include both fiction and nonfiction books in every imaginable niche. There’s everything from bestsellers to lesser-known self-published books and everything in between.
Audible’s basic or Gold subscription is $14.95 per month, which gives you one credit to use on any book in their library, 30% off additional audiobooks, and two free Audible originals. Once you sign up, your account is billed monthly whether you download any books or not. However, you can apply credits to future months, so you don’t lose them. There’s also an option to put your membership on hold if you know you won’t be using it for a while. Audible also offers a Platinum membership for $22.95 per month, which gives you two books per month. You can save a little on both Gold and Platinum memberships by paying annually.
Audible for students is $9.95/m, and you need a .edu email to verify your status.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can get 3 free months of Audible. If not, you can still get one free month.
Another feature that comes with Amazon Prime is Audible Channels, which gives you access to a collection of podcasts. If you’re not an Amazon Prime member, this add-on costs $4.95 per month.
Scribd
Scribdstarted out as an e-book service and still focuses largely on this. Now, however, they’ve expanded into audiobooks as well. This is a good option if you like both types of books or even if you like to combine them.
Scribd recently updated its policy in a way that’s more favorable to members who are serious readers. Originally, your monthly subscription fee only covered a limited number of books, and you had to purchase credits for anything additional. Now, however, the monthly fee gives you unlimited access (though there may be restrictions on some titles).
Audiobooks.com
Audiobooks.com is another popular audiobooks service that gives you access to a large selection of books. In some ways, this service is set up similar to Audible. Their $14.95 per month membership fee is the same as Audible’s, and it gives you access to two audiobooks per month; one from the main library and one from the VIP library, which is updated every month. Audiobooks.com also includes access to 720,000 podcasts and more than 8500 free books.
Audiobooks.com comes as a “Family Plan”; Users are able to invite friends/family to join their account for free. This will allow up to 3 users to share audiobooks with each other and use the account at the same time.
Unlike Audible, with Audiobooks.com, there is only one membership option. If you want to listen to additional books, you have to purchase more credits at the same price of $14.95. Thus, if you’re an avid audiobook listener, you’ll find that Audiobooks.com is a little more expensive than Audible’s Platinum membership. For example, if you listen to more books than your plan allows, Audible will cost you about $23 (for two premium books) and Audiobooks.com about $30 (for three to four books).
Audiobooks.com has a good selection of books, including many bestsellers. With a library of over 150,000 books, it covers a wide range of topics and authors. However, even with this selection, it can’t compete with Audible and its unmatched library of over 200,000 books. Like Audible and Scribd, Audibooks.com has apps you can download to your phone so that you can listen on your mobile devices.
Which is Best?
All of these services have good selections of books. Scribdis still mainly in the e-book business, having only recently added audiobooks to its model. Audible, of course, has always been all about audiobooks, though its services are now starting to overlap with Kindle (Kindle readers can now access certain Audible audiobooks to go along with e-books; since both companies are Amazon-owned, this isn’t surprising). Audiobooks.com, as noted, has set up a service that’s very similar to Audible.
The one that’s best for you really depends on your preferences and reading habits. If you’re looking to save money, Scribd costs $6 per month less than either Audible or Audiobooks.com. Scribd is also a good choice if you like to access media in different formats. Now that they’ve done away with the credit system, your $8.99 per month subscription is all-inclusive, giving you access to unlimited magazines, e-books, and audiobooks. The only downside to Scribd is that it doesn’t offer the same size library as its competitors for audiobooks.
Both Audible and Audiobooks.com let you buy individual audiobooks if you don’t want to subscribe. This is an option if you only like to listen to books on occasion. Audible has the biggest selection of audiobooks and offers its best deal if you consume at least two books per month. If you only listen to one audiobook per month, Audiobooks.com and Audible are comparable as they have similar prices and models.
Since all three services offer free trial memberships, you have nothing to lose by trying any of them. And, if you’re a truly voracious reader, you may even want to subscribe to more than one!
