Audible Review

Last updated: June 13, 2016 - 11:56am EDT

So, we've covered what Audible is and how it works, as well as how much Audible costs.  Now, if you'll lend us your ear (or perhaps your eyes) for just a little bit longer, we'll evaluate Audible for you based on what we feel are its biggest pros and cons.

Pros

  • Signing up costs you nothing -- It's free to create an account on Audible.  In fact, if you have an account with Amazon, you can just copy it over and use it as your Audible account, too!

  • A large library of audiobooks -- Audible has over 150,000 audiobooks for you to find, purchase, and enjoy.  Some are timeless classics, while others are hot off the press.  Science fiction, romance, mysteries, self-help, biographies... there's something for everyone.

  • Listen where you want, when you want -- You can listen to audiobooks right on Audible's website, or you can download an app for your desktop computer or mobile device and listen to your own personal library of audiobooks from there.

  • Get even more with a membership -- If you subscribe to a membership with Audible, you can buy audiobooks at reduced cost, and even get a few of them for free!

Cons

  • Everything has a price -- You will have to buy the audiobooks that you want to listen to before you can enjoy them.  You can occasionally get free audiobooks, but you need a membership to Audible to do so, and that costs money, too.

  • Not entirely "free" listening -- Audiobooks purchased from Audible can only be listened to on Audible itself, or on Audible-authorized apps.  They can't be moved around on your computer, or listened to any other way (with a few exceptions, such as iTunes).

  • Can't put a good book down -- Your Audible account and Amazon account are interchangeable, so if you want to completely delete your Audible account, you will have do so by completely deleting your Amazon account.

The bottom line: 8/10

Audible is one of the more popular audiobook portals on the Internet, and with good reason.  They have a larger library than most of their competitors, allow for listening to audiobooks on multiple different platforms through their apps, and have a relatively fair pricing structure.  Audible's main downsides are that you have to pay for pretty much anything that you want to listen to (including if you want a membership in order to reduce costs), that there are few places not associated with Audible where you can actually listen to Audible books, and that it's really hard to completely get rid of your Audible account.

Is Audible worth it?

Overall, whether or not Audible is worth the money that you pay for it will depend on a few things.  These include how often you buy audiobooks, as well as how expensive said books are.  It will also depend on whether or not you purchase a membership subscription, and what level of subscription you get.

For example, a Gold Monthly membership to Audible costs about $15 per month.  Along with that, you get one free book a month.  So if you use your credit each month to buy a book that would otherwise be worth $15, then you've already broken even.

And don't forget that you also get 30% off any books that you buy without using your book credits.  So, let's say that you buy an additional four books or so, each regularly priced at $20.  The prices will break down like so:

Without membership: $20 book + $20 book + $20 book + $20 book = $80

With membership: $15 membership fee + $14 book + $14 book + $14 book + $14 book = $71

So, with a Gold Monthly membership (and not factoring in the free book that you get per month), if you buy at least three books per month, you'll be saving $3 versus if you didn't have the membership.  And you'll be saving an additional $6 per book bought after that!

 

Perhaps the best barometer of whether or not Audible will be worth it or not for you is... you!  So if you want to see for yourself what Audible is all about, our next tutorial will give you a brief tour of how to use Audible!

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More Audible Tutorials

See all 6 Audible tutorials
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