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Post by nudge on Aug 13, 2017 19:11:04 GMT
I never understand why there is such negativity when Audible is mentioned. I appreciate their business model wouldn’t work for Big Finish or Bafflegab, but what they offer is superb.
100% of what I listen too is via their app on my Android phone so DRM isn’t an issue for me. Actually I think DRM allows them to offer a greater variety of audiobook/dramas as publishers will feel more protected offering their books, via Audible, as copyright control is applied to them. Also I have no complaints with the sound quality, I select ‘High Quality’ downloads and it’s fine for my ears, via earphones or through my car speakers.
The biggest benefit with Audible is their price. I’m a 24-book annual member which works out at £4.58 per book. And if I use all my credits I can buy 3 more for £11, making it just £3.67 per book. So this week I downloaded BBC’s Martin Beck full cast dramatisations (10 stories) @ 10hrs 30mins for just £3.67. I think that’s a bargain.
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Post by muckypup on Aug 13, 2017 19:42:58 GMT
although audible do sell BF titles......the product audible really do is very different.
what audible do best is books, audio books 20 hours 30 hours and quality is fine for single voice stuff. id never want to go back to CD's or the Dreaded MP3 cd's or cassettes....arhhhh
the recent alien and xfiles titles are great but the quality on the sound is a bit of an issue, and the cost between dr who cd and the download prices are getting closer and closer together. I like audible but stick to audiobooks, that's your market audible.
BF are very different, who would they make it work.....we would be using a credit to buy a £25 box for £5....as small company would never stay in business. I can see a netfix style service for a monthly fee for older titles, but they would need to tie you in for 12 months to make it pay.
I don't see its ever something they will do.....
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2017 20:15:46 GMT
although audible do sell BF titles......the product audible really do is very different. what audible do best is books, audio books 20 hours 30 hours and quality is fine for single voice stuff. id never want to go back to CD's or the Dreaded MP3 cd's or cassettes....arhhhh the recent alien and xfiles titles are great but the quality on the sound is a bit of an issue, and the cost between dr who cd and the download prices are getting closer and closer together. I like audible but stick to audiobooks, that's your market audible. BF are very different, who would they make it work.....we would be using a credit to buy a £25 box for £5....as small company would never stay in business. I can see a netfix style service for a monthly fee for older titles, but they would need to tie you in for 12 months to make it pay. I don't see its ever something they will do..... I have a number of Big Finish titles through Audible and genuinely cannot here the difference.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2017 20:45:21 GMT
Checked the audible site, they are membership only as far as I can tell, that membership can renew monthly or annually. From experience you get to keep what you purchased with your "credits" once your membership expires, but of course subject to the DRM restrictions and so long Audible stay in business and keep their DRM servers running etc etc. You can keep them in an Audible online account for re-download without an active subscription?
Yes, you can do that.
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Post by mark687 on Aug 13, 2017 20:48:23 GMT
You can keep them in an Audible online account for re-download without an active subscription?
Yes, you can do that. Indefinitely?
Regards
mark687
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2017 20:56:26 GMT
Dunno about indefinitely. My Audible membership lapsed around April/May, I can still download my purchases to my iPhone via the Audible app though. (Just tried.)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2017 21:05:52 GMT
Audible's model (Amazon account required):
*You can purchase anything for the stated price. *You can subscribe monthly or annually to get credits. *You can purchase items at one credit per item. *If you are currently subscribed, you can, instead of using credits, purchase items at 30% off the stated price (you do not need to have at least one credit to do this.) *Any items you purchase (with money, credits or at the discount) are yours to keep, forever, even if your subscription ends.
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Post by barnabaslives on Aug 13, 2017 21:10:21 GMT
I never understand why there is such negativity when Audible is mentioned. I appreciate their business model wouldn’t work for Big Finish or Bafflegab, but what they offer is superb. 100% of what I listen too is via their app on my Android phone so DRM isn’t an issue for me. Actually I think DRM allows them to offer a greater variety of audiobook/dramas as publishers will feel more protected offering their books, via Audible, as copyright control is applied to them. Also I have no complaints with the sound quality, I select ‘High Quality’ downloads and it’s fine for my ears, via earphones or through my car speakers. The biggest benefit with Audible is their price. I’m a 24-book annual member which works out at £4.58 per book. And if I use all my credits I can buy 3 more for £11, making it just £3.67 per book. So this week I downloaded BBC’s Martin Beck full cast dramatisations (10 stories) @ 10hrs 30mins for just £3.67. I think that’s a bargain. It might be worthwhile signing up for a year for some people, they do have some nice selections and some great bargains. I don't know if there's any way around the DRM but if so, it's only adding a step to the piracy process, and it's made it a terrible inconvenience for me since the licensing process fails on most of my machinery. I suspect the best protection might actually be that it's probably sort of a niche market with fans whose loyalty to the franchise serves an honor system because it discourages their participation in piracy, also there is loyalty to a particular company to discourage theft, and Big Finish deserves plenty of loyalty for hard work, quality and user-friendliness. On the other hand, I'm not as sure about Audible raising some of their list prices through the roof - it's no big deal if you get a large plan and buy the same spendy item for a single bargain-priced credit, but I feel sorry for anyone who pays the Audible list price for a Big Finish item not knowing they can probably get it straight from Big Finish for half of that. Maybe if Audible's pricing were a little less silly, their generosity would be a little more obvious? I need to double-check but my recollection is that possibly for being a US customer, I wasn't seeing some of the same offers in my account as some have described here before, like the lowest price per credit/audio I could get was maybe twice what others are talking about. Sound quality's been passable on most things but still sounds awfully tinny even to my deaf ears (stands to reason that if 20 hours is compressed into a file the size of 4 hours of more typical quality audio that there is going to be loss) and the sound quality on some of the Torchwood audios and the Melody Malone story were almost literally painful to listen to. Other's playback and/or mileage may vary. Don't know what the enhanced option is doing, but possibly it's accentuating the bad with the good on some of the poorer sounding ones? May well be worth checking out if one is careful, but I must emphatically agree with the poster who cited Big Finish as an exemplary model - I would be so much happier with Audible if they did things more like Big Finish - not the other way around! :-)
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Post by mark687 on Aug 13, 2017 21:11:43 GMT
Audible's model (Amazon account required): *You can purchase anything for the stated price. *You can subscribe monthly or annually to get credits. *You can purchase items at one credit per item. *If you are currently subscribed, you can, instead of using credits, purchase items at 30% off the stated price (you do not need to have at least one credit to do this.) *Any items you purchase (with money, credits or at the discount) are yours to keep, forever, even if your subscription ends. So price wise makes a sort of sense
What about Downloading to non-Amazon devices and sound quality?
Regards
mark687
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2017 21:51:55 GMT
So price wise makes a sort of sense
What about Downloading to non-Amazon devices and sound quality?
Regards
mark687
Kindle and Audible apps are available on every platform. The iOS and Android apps are very nice and are updated regularly. However, the Windows apps not so much. The Kindle app is very usable (but is almost never updated, so it can't read magazines and newspapers*, for example). There is also a web version. Using modern browsers' offline capabilities you can download the books and bookmark read.amazon.com. The Audible app looks like it hasn't had a UI refresh since the '90s (so, probably never). Small text, small buttons, not user friendly. Unusable by today's standards. It even demands you download the files from the website, rather than in-app. There is a Windows 10 Store app, though, which is reasonable. I can't comment on either Mac app. Sound quality is reasonable for audiobook readings but, as others have stated, that's about all it is. I haven't tried anything more complex than two narrators reading the book, though. (One male, one female, reading the chapters told from the point-of-view of respective characters.) *As I understand it. Most of those are US only, so I have no personal experience.
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Post by mark687 on Aug 13, 2017 21:57:52 GMT
So price wise makes a sort of sense
What about Downloading to non-Amazon devices and sound quality?
Regards
mark687
Kindle and Audible apps are available on every platform. The iOS and Android apps are very nice and are updated regularly. However, the Windows apps not so much. The Kindle app is very usable (but is almost never updated, so it can't read magazines and newspapers*, for example). There is also a web version. Using modern browsers' offline capabilities you can download the books and bookmark read.amazon.com. The Audible app looks like it hasn't had a UI refresh since the '90s (so, probably never). Small text, small buttons, not user friendly. Unusable by today's standards. It even demands you download the files from the website, rather than in-app. There is a Windows 10 Store app, though, which is reasonable. I can't comment on either Mac app. Sound quality is reasonable for audiobook readings but, as others have stated, that's about all it is. I haven't tried anything more complex than two narrators reading the book, though. (One male, one female, reading the chapters told from the point-of-view of respective characters.) *As I understand it. Most of those are US only, so I have no personal experience. Thanks for info I wouldn't change BFs current Model myself but at least there's a passable argument for the other Models.
Regards
mark687
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Post by jasonward on Aug 13, 2017 22:23:57 GMT
So price wise makes a sort of sense
What about Downloading to non-Amazon devices and sound quality?
Regards
mark687
Kindle and Audible apps are available on every platform. That's not even remotely true.
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Post by mark687 on Aug 13, 2017 22:41:31 GMT
Kindle and Audible apps are available on every platform. That's not even remotely true. I've always thought it wasn't the case I must admit.
Regards
mark687
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Post by jasonward on Aug 13, 2017 22:44:34 GMT
I never understand why there is such negativity when Audible is mentioned. ... 100% of what I listen too is via their app on my Android phone so DRM isn’t an issue for me. As I keep pointing out, and as BBC Store customers have recently found out, when your purchase content with DRM you don't really own it at all, and you can easily loose your ability to play the purchases at all. Sure, as people keep saying you can burn Audible audio's to CD and then rip them again to get none DRM protected media, but not only is that a real pain for legitimate users (and possibly illegal*) it's actually no deterrent at all to the real pirates. If for any reason what so ever Audible cease to trade, or loose track of the stuff your purchased, or decide the stuff you purchased X years ago is not something they want to continue to spend money on supporting, or the DRM tech just becomes too old to be any longer supported any indeed for any of dozens or more reasons you could loose access to what you "own" to what your purchased. You may be happy to know that at any moment you could loose access to the stuff you paid for, but many of us are not. Of course, another reason for disliking Audible is that you cannot play their content on all platforms or even any platform not vetted and supported by Audible, and that's a problem for me, and I expect some others too. * I suspect that ripping the CD would be illegal, and I expect it would be illegal to continue to listen to content that Audible had for some reason decided to block via their DRM from being listened to.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2017 23:27:12 GMT
Kindle and Audible apps are available on every platform. That's not even remotely true. While I will admit to it not being literally true, "remotely" is overly harsh and unfair. That statement is the general word-of-mouth answer to they question about every platform, being on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. As always, those who have specific needs know who they and why they can ignore the general advice. What platforms are you talking about, by the way? (Please don't say Linux.)
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2017 23:56:15 GMT
As to services suddenly shutting and you losing all your purchases, that is why I only trust Apple, Google and Amazon (again, probably not literally). They are so big that people have invested so much into them that they can't just shut such services, because of the resulting public outcry/backlash. Also, Google controls so much of internet activity, and Amazon has Amazon Web Servies, that the ramifications will involve much bigger problems than the loss of your books. So they won't be going anywhere, anytime soon. (As for Apple, those in the Apple ecosystem can remain in that Apple ecosystem.)
Besides, even though they will eventually shut down, when that happens you will still have got a huge bang-for-your-buck. In the meantime, you have the perk of their apps removing the inconvenience of having to transfer your purchases from device to device.
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Post by jasonward on Aug 14, 2017 0:01:30 GMT
That's not even remotely true. While I will admit to it not being literally true, "remotely" is overly harsh and unfair. That statement is the general word-of-mouth answer to they question about every platform, being on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. As always, those who have specific needs know who they and why they can ignore the general advice. What platforms are you talking about, by the way? (Please don't say Linux.) Why shouldn't I say Linux? Does my use of it make me inferior in some way? But that isn't just what I mean, for those of us with media players not on Audibles approved list, can't use them for Audible content.
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Post by jasonward on Aug 14, 2017 0:08:19 GMT
As to services suddenly shutting and you losing all your purchases, that is why I only trust Apple, Google and Amazon (again, probably not literally). They are so big that people have invested so much into them that they can't just shut such services, because of the resulting public outcry/backlash. Also, Google controls so much of internet activity, and Amazon has Amazon Web Servies, that the ramifications will involve much bigger problems than the loss of your books. So they won't be going anywhere, anytime soon. (As for Apple, those in the Apple ecosystem can remain in that Apple ecosystem.) Besides, even though they will eventually shut down, when that happens you will still have got a huge bang-for-your-buck. In the meantime, you have the perk of their apps removing the inconvenience of having to transfer your purchases from device to device. Wouldn't Microsoft fall into this category? Their hosting services are a large and serious competitor to the likes of Amazon, their software is more ubiquitous than any of the companies you mention, yet when they closed down their music service I and anyone else who had used that service to purchase music lost all access to it (by the way, that was the 2nd time MS did the exact same thing to their music customers), and MS's response to the "outcry" can be summarised as "tough" (on both occasions). EDIT: I also have to add, the BBC is one of the most trusted organisations in the world let alone the trust levels it has with large sections of the UK citizenry, yet they still shut down and removed access to their DRM media. Luckily, it being the BBC they refunded all purchases, unlike MS who offered nothing.
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Post by muckypup on Aug 14, 2017 0:31:23 GMT
I never understand why there is such negativity when Audible is mentioned. ... 100% of what I listen too is via their app on my Android phone so DRM isn’t an issue for me. As I keep pointing out, and as BBC Store customers have recently found out, when your purchase content with DRM you don't really own it at all, and you can easily loose your ability to play the purchases at all. Sure, as people keep saying you can burn Audible audio's to CD and then rip them again to get none DRM protected media, but not only is that a real pain for legitimate users (and possibly illegal*) it's actually no deterrent at all to the real pirates. If for any reason what so ever Audible cease to trade, or loose track of the stuff your purchased, or decide the stuff you purchased X years ago is not something they want to continue to spend money on supporting, or the DRM tech just becomes too old to be any longer supported any indeed for any of dozens or more reasons you could loose access to what you "own" to what your purchased. You may be happy to know that at any moment you could loose access to the stuff you paid for, but many of us are not. Of course, another reason for disliking Audible is that you cannot play their content on all platforms or even any platform not vetted and supported by Audible, and that's a problem for me, and I expect some others too. * I suspect that ripping the CD would be illegal, and I expect it would be illegal to continue to listen to content that Audible had for some reason decided to block via their DRM from being listened to. All true....but all just a bit pointless these days. it comes down to price, if you think it's worth paying £50+ for 20 or 30 cd's you will listen to once, clutter everywhere up, are a pain to keep in order, hard to retain you place & bulky to carry around, just so you can play them in any CD player then fair enough you win the argument. I don't and so don't thousands if not millions of others. I pay £5 to listen to a book, the chances that I will ever go back and listen again are tiny, so the risk that one the worlds biggest companies might go bust or risk many lawsuits by closing the service or having to refund millions of customers like the BBC, is a risk I will take. yes in the old days of audible yes the drm was a pain but today we use our phones, iPads etc it's easy. i am not sure what device you would want to be playing on that's not supported? its not perfect, what is? I joined audible in 2001 and still have access to all my titles, even if the quality has not been upped to today's standards it's still there. all in all yes if you don't like the idea of supporting drm I get it, but I have 200+ records, 500+ cassette tapes, 300+ vhs tapes in the attic but I cannot play them as I don't have a player everything has a drm equivalent.
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Post by jasonward on Aug 14, 2017 0:57:16 GMT
I normally listen to the audios I've purchased many times.
It is your choice no to own the devices to play the old media you have, all of those players can still be purchased and you can still access those media if you want.
DRM takes away your choice and gives it to companies that sold you the stuff in the first place.
If that's not a problem for you, then fine, but for me it's a show stopper.
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