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Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

I see audiobooks as crazy expensive and I don't like how they are locked down. If I paid $20-30 for a Martin Prechtel audio book and get an MP3 or something I could use any way I like it would be one thing but to be locked into Apple or Amazon it is just something I do when I am on the free trial... And Prechtel is one of very few authors I'd prefer it for because his work is so oral.

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Agreed that they're overpriced. For some reason, I rarely want to own a DRM-ridden audiobook, especially at those prices. (The Lord of the Rings as read by Andy Serkis and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter are two recent exceptions that you should check out.)

Once I'm done borrowing an audiobook from the library through Libby or Hoopla, I might buy a physical book if I liked it enough. I usually don't foresee myself listening to the book again.

Why bother with libraries when you can subscribe to Audible?

It's free, and I'm boycotting Amazon.

In cases where I have trouble getting a book from the library, it's often on Spotify. An Audible subscription would be mostly redundant.

I'm quite happy with OpenAudible: https://openaudible.org/

Which is why most everyone does a subscription model. ~$15 per book, even if its 800 pages written.

You mean per month, not per book? Most people I know that listen to audiobooks, do so through services that charge monthly subscription. Netflix for audiobooks, basically.

Audible does X credits per month subs and a credit is 1 book. I guess there are Netflix style ones too now.

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