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Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

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Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#11

Post by Causality1 »

raverbashing wrote: post #6

Well, you are free to not do it In fact I can't stand podcasts or similars for the most part as I can't do some things while listening to it. Maybe driving but that's it. As much as it's nice to learn stuff, at some point it is just shallow edutainment (as much as I like some of the science yt channels)

I'm a bit confused about your complaint. Do you dislike podcasts because they demand too much attention and feel like educational content or because they're shallow entertainment? Because those seem like two opposite problems.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#12

Post by ghaff »

kurthr wrote: post #10
alehul wrote: post #2

Tried parsing through the first few paragraphs; can someone offer a tl;dr of how Audible is assaulting leisure time? Is it because Audible can be listened to while performing other tasks or going about your day, and it removes the previously quiet, uninterrupted time of the day to ponder?

Kinda, but I admit to being confused as well... 'It’s simplistic but not entirely inaccurate to say that Audible’s parent, Amazon, is to book publishing what Facebook and Google are to magazines: the troll under the bridge whose idea of a toll is to devour consumers and competitors whole.' and 'On the train to get coffee with a well-meaning writer twenty years your senior who will advise you to “climb the ladder” lik…

I don't find that with audiobooks at all. When I commuted regularly they were a good source of ad-free interesting content on my drive. (Though some books work better as audiobooks than others.)

I pretty much never listen to them now. For occasional drives, podcasts are a much better fit because it's hard to dip in and out of books with multi-week gaps. But, then, I mostly don't much care for random background entertainment--even music much of the time and certainly not talk.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#13

Post by jaabe »

Causality1 wrote: post #4

I just wish Audible had adopted a Netflix-style distribution system rather than an Amazon.com style one. Watching all the Netflix I want costs me fifteen dollars a month. Listening to all the Audible content I want would cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month because I'd have to purchase each piece of media individually.

Until you want to read a book that isn’t currently available. Maybe it’s different on the American Netflix (and similar), but currently none of the streaming services in Denmark have all seasons of x-files.

I prefer buying things to renting them, but of course with modern digital distribution you often end up renting them even when you “buy” because of DRMs.

Maybe I’m old, but I just don’t get modern media consumption. I mean, if we look beyond DRMs (and maybe you can crack Amazon’s), then you’ll own 120 books in 10 years as opposed to the Netflix model where in 10 years and the same amount of money, you’ll own 0 books.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#14

Post by raverbashing »

Causality1 wrote: post #11
raverbashing wrote: post #6

Well, you are free to not do it In fact I can't stand podcasts or similars for the most part as I can't do some things while listening to it. Maybe driving but that's it. As much as it's nice to learn stuff, at some point it is just shallow edutainment (as much as I like some of the science yt channels)

I'm a bit confused about your complaint. Do you dislike podcasts because they demand too much attention and feel like educational content or because they're shallow entertainment? Because those seem like two opposite problems.

They are not exclusive, because I can't concentrate on some tasks while someone is speaking in the background, regardless of what's being said.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#15

Post by gh02t »

_i____ii_______ wrote: post #3

Audible's greatest assault is on my wallet. So many audiobooks on that platform are exorbitantly expensive.

Audiobooks in general are pretty expensive, especially when compared to the price of a print/digital book. The costs to produce one are higher, and the market is smaller (though the latter is changing, as the article shows).

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#16

Post by Causality1 »

kurthr wrote: post #10
alehul wrote: post #2

Tried parsing through the first few paragraphs; can someone offer a tl;dr of how Audible is assaulting leisure time? Is it because Audible can be listened to while performing other tasks or going about your day, and it removes the previously quiet, uninterrupted time of the day to ponder?

Kinda, but I admit to being confused as well... 'It’s simplistic but not entirely inaccurate to say that Audible’s parent, Amazon, is to book publishing what Facebook and Google are to magazines: the troll under the bridge whose idea of a toll is to devour consumers and competitors whole.' and 'On the train to get coffee with a well-meaning writer twenty years your senior who will advise you to “climb the ladder” lik…

Audiobooks are rather unique in that you have to maintain a degree of mental discipline to avoid giving into the temptation to treat them as background noise. My personal strategy is to stick to lighthearted podcasts when I'm doing something that requires cognitive attention like web browsing or gaming and save the audiobooks for truly routine tasks like commuting to work or cutting the grass. I've also gotten good results from reading the first chapter of a book to firmly place the characters and setting in my mind and then switching to the audiobook.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#17

Post by cannonedhamster »

Causality1 wrote: post #4

I just wish Audible had adopted a Netflix-style distribution system rather than an Amazon.com style one. Watching all the Netflix I want costs me fifteen dollars a month. Listening to all the Audible content I want would cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month because I'd have to purchase each piece of media individually.

Hoopla and Overdrive have audiobooks through your library or some just for using their service. Costs you nothing. Having it through your library gets you more options though. Might help you lower your costs. Aside from Audible you could check out Downpour. Similar service to Audible but less restrictive on ownership.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#18

Post by Causality1 »

_i____ii_______ wrote: post #3

Audible's greatest assault is on my wallet. So many audiobooks on that platform are exorbitantly expensive.

Yep. Fifty hours of Netflix is fifteen dollars a month. Fifty hours of Audible content is close to a hundred bucks. Now, two dollars per hour is cheap compared to traditional entertainment like movie theaters and DVDs but downright insane compared to YouTube and Spotify.

Re: Audible and audiobooks, the fastest growing part of publishing

#20

Post by _i____ii_______ »

gh02t wrote: post #15
_i____ii_______ wrote: post #3

Audible's greatest assault is on my wallet. So many audiobooks on that platform are exorbitantly expensive.

Audiobooks in general are pretty expensive, especially when compared to the price of a print/digital book. The costs to produce one are higher, and the market is smaller (though the latter is changing, as the article shows).

Why are the costs to produce audiobooks higher? Librivox has public domain books for free, submitted by volunteers.
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