Audio Book Rental Service (1 Viewer)

[CaseyL]

I'm looking for a good audio book rental service. Something akin to Netflix. I googled it, and there appears to be a metric ton of services that do this, so I'm basically looking for reviews of selections and service by people who have used these services. What's good, what sucks? I'm also not opposed to a download or streaming of some sort, but I think the rental service would work better for me.

 

[DaveF]

I've not used it, but it's advertised and touted by people that use it and love it: Audible.com

 

[Johnny Angell]

I use audible and it's a good service. They have a ton of books and they are easy to download. They have different subscription plans. I find there is only one fly in the ointment. They use a propriety compressed format and you either have a device that will play that format (many do, iPod, for instance), or you listen to them on your computer, or you convert them to wav files which means it takes multiple cd's for one book. They do not allow you to convert the books to mp3's.

 

[CaseyL]

A CD system works better for my instance, as opposed to a download. I'm actually looking for a friend who works alone in a bakery at night, and it's really only equipped to handle CD, hence the reason I'd rather use something that works like netflix. That and the fact that since she works alone, she can rip through an audio book in like 3 days. Audible has 2 books per month, which wouldn't help her too much. I was looking at simplyaudiobooks.com which is basically unlimited amount of rentals. seems to fit the bill, but I agree that audible is probably the better choice, selection-wise.

 

[mattCR]

I agree. Forget rental. I pay Audible $20 a month, been a subscriber for 4 years, and I have a MASSIVE library of great audiobooks. and unlike a lot of other services, when I login to my account, I can redownload them. Hell, I recently re-downloaded books I listened to years ago in their new improved CODEC.

I can't say enough positive about Audible. The 2 books per month is at the low end, I go through about 4 a month.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Originally Posted by CaseyL

A CD system works better for my instance, as opposed to a download. I'm actually looking for a friend who works alone in a bakery at night, and it's really only equipped to handle CD, hence the reason I'd rather use something that works like netflix. That and the fact that since she works alone, she can rip through an audio book in like 3 days. Audible has 2 books per month, which wouldn't help her too much. I was looking at simplyaudiobooks.com which is basically unlimited amount of rentals. seems to fit the bill, but I agree that audible is probably the better choice, selection-wise.

Don't forget that you can burn the downloads to wav file CDs. You now own the book. Even if you cancel your Audible subscription you can still log on to your account to re-download books you had already purchased. Even without a subscription, they have "sales" and you can buy books when you see a good deal.

I think Audible is the best deal out there. I just wish they allowed mp3's, but I understand why they don't.

 

[CaseyL]

Well, okay. I guess I'll do Audible.