Yeah, that's one other problem with Audible. I can get actual paper books for less than the cost of those audio books. Sorry guys. I know it takes extra production effort to do the voice recording, but I really couldn't care less. If you want to sell me a digital book in audio form, it's gotta be like, $1. Text form has to be even less than that. The key to making money is to go in bulk. Charge me like, $100 for the complete works of Aasimov or something, and I'll cave.
I do know with Audible you can ATLEAST get the first book free. My suggestion? Get something like Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrel which is like...20 hours worth of audio files. XD
I do know with Audible you can ATLEAST get the first book free. My suggestion? Get something like Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrel which is like...20 hours worth of audio files. XD
For a standard Audible subscription, one month's fee is one book credit. You can look at it as they're either giving you a free one-credit book up front or a free month up front.
For a standard Audible subscription, one month's fee is one book credit. You can look at it as they're either giving you a free one-credit book up front or a free month up front.
Which makes it even worse. Netflix is all you can watch. Audible should be all you can listen.
For a standard Audible subscription, one month's fee is one book credit. You can look at it as they're either giving you a free one-credit book up front or a free month up front.
Which makes it even worse. Netflix is all you can watch. Audible should be all you can listen.
At the very least, a reasonable option would be to drop their prices some, and offer an unlimited option, and/or the option to buy credits, if they don't already. They currently only have the two plans, gold and platinum, and the option to buy all of the credits on either of the plans at once. One book a month simply isn't enough for me - I listen to about twenty to twenty-five podcasts, most of them over an hour each(There is only three or four which are anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour, including one which is about 9-10 minutes a pop, but is daily, sometimes has long specials, and sometimes comes out multiple times a day.) and if I had the time to, or wanted to purchase another credit, or move your credits about - say I've finished this month's book, and I want to listen to next month's - why can't I simply pay for next month's fee, and get the book immediately, rather than having to buy all my books at once, or one per month, which I'll burn through easy?
It's probably a stupid and/or unreasonable idea, but still, I think it has some merit.
Yeah, I've heard of people with multiple accounts in order to get more credits.
Personally, my listening has decreased greatly as of late. I can't listen while biking, and my train commute is gone. Therefore it's kind of stupid of me to pay so much money for even on book per month, when I won't even listen to that much. If it was an unlimited plan for maybe half the cost, I would do it. With the current system, you pick a book and are stuck with it. If you pick wrong, oh shit that's a month down the toilet. With an unlimited plan, you have the freedom to listen to any thing at any time. If your mood changes, or if you picked a stinker, you can escape.
Yeah, that's one other problem with Audible. I can get actual paper books for less than the cost of those audio books. Sorry guys. I know it takes extra production effort to do the voice recording, but I really couldn't care less. If you want to sell me a digital book in audio form, it's gotta be like, $1. Text form has to be even less than that. The key to making money is to go in bulk. Charge me like, $100 for the complete works of Aasimov or something, and I'll cave.
Meanwhile, if you are a book geek, and love reading, you should pay what you can afford to get the best you can for your geekery.
Oh wait. That only goes for the geekeries Scott cares about. Personally I really appreciate the work of the production team and narrators. I've listened to many free audio books, or tried to, and the quality is quite variable. The audio books from Audible are, without exception, perfectly produced with great narrators. I am very, very happy to pay to support the ongoing work of the production companies. It's more understandable that Scott, who can't even get Asimov's name correct, isn't interested in paying for quality reading/listening.
Yeah, I've heard of people with multiple accounts in order to get more credits.
Personally, my listening has decreased greatly as of late. I can't listen while biking, and my train commute is gone. Therefore it's kind of stupid of me to pay so much money for even on book per month, when I won't even listen to that much. If it was an unlimited plan for maybe half the cost, I would do it. With the current system, you pick a book and are stuck with it. If you pick wrong, oh shit that's a month down the toilet. With an unlimited plan, you have the freedom to listen to any thing at any time. If your mood changes, or if you picked a stinker, you can escape.
That's why I suggest to only do the first book free deal. Don't go into the cost of spending that much for audiobooks, but atleast give it a shot and get that one book that can last you a whole weekend.
That's why I suggest to only do the first book free deal. Don't go into the cost of spending that much for audiobooks, but atleast give it a shot and get that one book that can last you a whole weekend.
Yeah, get a free book and then cancel. No reason not to.
Some really good suggestions that I agree with on here!
I'm curious to see how my suggestion goes over with so many Aussies on this board, but my favorite podcast is Hamish & Andy. They do a Drive Time show in Australia and it's a best of clip show - most are 30-40 minutes. I've been listening for about two years and still love it!
Yeah, the newest episode is the first time they made that joke. They've made jokes about it being the ides of whatever month before, but Max Ides is new.
In that case, 1000 dollar chairs and 100 dollar gaming mice are monster cables.
Here's the key to your epic own goal:
The cheapest cables do just as good a job as monster cables. They might not have as good build quality, but as long as the connection stays secure, they'll function identically.
vs
The cheapest alternatives to Audible (many free) suffer from bad quality production, bad narrators, more annoying DRM (doesn't work with a single, one-time password entered in iTunes), less choice (having to sign up in multiple places for different titles), annoying file sizes and lengths, having to adjust settings to get the automatic bookmarking to work, running fucking ADVERTS, etc, etc, etc. Even when I use a torrent to get a file, the process is more annoying than the five mouse clicks it takes with Audible.
Finally, and I know I might sound like an idiot repeating this, but I think it bears repeating, I WANT to pay money to support authors and narrators and producers. Two credits costs about 20 euros. The book I'm listening to now is 26 hours long. 10 euro for 26 hours of entertainment, from one of my favourite authors, with a great narrator, is a bargain.
Until you sell your 1000 dollar chair, and use lawn furniture, shut the fuck up.
I'm curious to see how my suggestion goes over with so many Aussies on this board, but my favorite podcast is Hamish & Andy. They do a Drive Time show in Australia and it's a best of clip show - most are 30-40 minutes. I've been listening for about two years and still love it!
Hell yeah, Hamish and Andy - They're on a station called B105, who are normally shit, but Hamish and andy are pretty good. I don't know about your time difference, but Australia is mostly GMT +10, and B105 streams the station out online - you could actually listen to it directly, too, when you have the time.
Also, Spoonman is pretty good, but very short. Avoid Merrick and Rosso, who are painfully unfunny. Triple J's hack podcast is pretty decent.
I think I have a way to demonstrate just how ludicrous the pricing on Audible is.
Steam is pretty much the only thing I use with DRM. How much do things cost on Steam, let's see. Alien Storm, free. Portal, $20. Half-Life 2, $20. Valve Complete Pack, $190 worth of games for $100. During sales, you can get games that are normally $50 for $20. There are 190 games for less than $5 and 652 games for less than $10.
If a DRM'd video game with multi-million dollar production values is that cheap, then an DRM'd audio book should cost maybe 50 cents. A song on iTunes should cost a nickel. If you want to make the argument that the games on Steam that are discounted are only the old ones, and new ones still cost $50, that's fine. How come the old books on Audible and the old songs on iTunes aren't discounted? Why should it be the same 1 credit for a brand new popular book that it is for an insanely old and unpopular book?
I think my new policy is this. If you want me to pay per-item, then it needs to be like Steam where the pricing is appropriate. If you want a subscription fee, then it needs to be an unlimited service, like Netflix.
I don't subscribe to Audible because I read books, and have no commute or lengthy travel where reading is difficult. Even if Audible were 100% free, I probably wouldn't bother. I barely even listen to Pesudopod anymore, and I loved every minute of it.
Now, had I still my long train commute or car commute, or were I traveling more regularly, I would consider it.
The cheapest alternatives to Audible (many free) suffer from bad quality production, bad narrators, more annoying DRM (doesn't work with a single, one-time password entered in iTunes), less choice (having to sign up in multiple places for different titles), annoying file sizes and lengths, having to adjust settings to get the automatic bookmarking to work, running fucking ADVERTS, etc, etc, etc. Even when I use a torrent to get a file, the process is more annoying than the five mouse clicks it takes with Audible.
Torrents are good, but don't forget about audiobook blogs! Here are three of my favorites: 1, 2, 3
I'm in complete agreement with Scott about Audible and their bullshit DRM-ways and hw they should change their business model. I did the free offer thing to get some audiobooks I couldn't find anywhere else last year and continued the service for 3 months after that. Every book I downloaded I made sure to convert to a non-DRM mp3 which, unlike some have mentioned, is not exactly an easy peasy & quick process for the vast majority most users out there. Anyhow, aside from that annoyance, the bigger issue I have with their current model is the bogus credit limit. They severely overcharge for all their books - most books that are longer than 9 hours usually are $15 or more and so you end up spending twice as much to get them as the 'credits' (Wii points) you buy ring in at $9.56. Unless they change that to something reasonable or go a more Netflix route, they will remain a RIAA wetdream in my eyes.
This is a market. They charge what they think will make them money back on all audio books that they produce or license. How many books is it possible to listen to in a month? I have LOTS of free time, and I make it through two books per month. That is, in total, 24 books per month.
Now, if they charged just 1 euro per book, they will make, at most 24 euros per year from me. No more. I can't consume any more!
If they charged 10 euro per book (what the platinum credits works out at for me) they make 240 euros per year. Just like you are HAPPY to pay 40 dollars instead of 20 for NS2, to help support the game, I'm equally happy to pay a few hundred euros per year instead of a few dozen. For me, that is good value for money for the time I spend listening.
And here's the next big step. How many people listen to audio books? How many people even read books? I can tell you this: not many. Look at Rym's comments. Even if it were free, he wouldn't have time.
So, the only way for Audible to make enough money to exist is by charging prices higher than the not-even-casual reader is willing to pay. They can't rely on not-even-casual readers. They need people who love books to pay what they think it is worth.
This boils down to Scott's financial priorities being different. He's making the argument that Audible's "not worth it" to everyone because it's not worth it to him. Now, Audible's not worth it to me because I buy hard copies of literature. But that doesn't invalidate Audible for people with disparate needs, lifestyles, habits, or preferences.
Comments
It's probably a stupid and/or unreasonable idea, but still, I think it has some merit.
Personally, my listening has decreased greatly as of late. I can't listen while biking, and my train commute is gone. Therefore it's kind of stupid of me to pay so much money for even on book per month, when I won't even listen to that much. If it was an unlimited plan for maybe half the cost, I would do it. With the current system, you pick a book and are stuck with it. If you pick wrong, oh shit that's a month down the toilet. With an unlimited plan, you have the freedom to listen to any thing at any time. If your mood changes, or if you picked a stinker, you can escape.
Oh wait. That only goes for the geekeries Scott cares about. Personally I really appreciate the work of the production team and narrators. I've listened to many free audio books, or tried to, and the quality is quite variable. The audio books from Audible are, without exception, perfectly produced with great narrators. I am very, very happy to pay to support the ongoing work of the production companies. It's more understandable that Scott, who can't even get Asimov's name correct, isn't interested in paying for quality reading/listening.
I'm curious to see how my suggestion goes over with so many Aussies on this board, but my favorite podcast is Hamish & Andy. They do a Drive Time show in Australia and it's a best of clip show - most are 30-40 minutes. I've been listening for about two years and still love it!
Here's the key to your epic own goal:
The cheapest cables do just as good a job as monster cables. They might not have as good build quality, but as long as the connection stays secure, they'll function identically.
vs
The cheapest alternatives to Audible (many free) suffer from bad quality production, bad narrators, more annoying DRM (doesn't work with a single, one-time password entered in iTunes), less choice (having to sign up in multiple places for different titles), annoying file sizes and lengths, having to adjust settings to get the automatic bookmarking to work, running fucking ADVERTS, etc, etc, etc. Even when I use a torrent to get a file, the process is more annoying than the five mouse clicks it takes with Audible.
Finally, and I know I might sound like an idiot repeating this, but I think it bears repeating, I WANT to pay money to support authors and narrators and producers. Two credits costs about 20 euros. The book I'm listening to now is 26 hours long. 10 euro for 26 hours of entertainment, from one of my favourite authors, with a great narrator, is a bargain.
Until you sell your 1000 dollar chair, and use lawn furniture, shut the fuck up.
Also, Spoonman is pretty good, but very short. Avoid Merrick and Rosso, who are painfully unfunny. Triple J's hack podcast is pretty decent.
Steam is pretty much the only thing I use with DRM. How much do things cost on Steam, let's see. Alien Storm, free. Portal, $20. Half-Life 2, $20. Valve Complete Pack, $190 worth of games for $100. During sales, you can get games that are normally $50 for $20. There are 190 games for less than $5 and 652 games for less than $10.
If a DRM'd video game with multi-million dollar production values is that cheap, then an DRM'd audio book should cost maybe 50 cents. A song on iTunes should cost a nickel. If you want to make the argument that the games on Steam that are discounted are only the old ones, and new ones still cost $50, that's fine. How come the old books on Audible and the old songs on iTunes aren't discounted? Why should it be the same 1 credit for a brand new popular book that it is for an insanely old and unpopular book?
I think my new policy is this.
If you want me to pay per-item, then it needs to be like Steam where the pricing is appropriate.
If you want a subscription fee, then it needs to be an unlimited service, like Netflix.
I don't subscribe to Audible because I read books, and have no commute or lengthy travel where reading is difficult. Even if Audible were 100% free, I probably wouldn't bother. I barely even listen to Pesudopod anymore, and I loved every minute of it.
Now, had I still my long train commute or car commute, or were I traveling more regularly, I would consider it.
I'm in complete agreement with Scott about Audible and their bullshit DRM-ways and hw they should change their business model. I did the free offer thing to get some audiobooks I couldn't find anywhere else last year and continued the service for 3 months after that. Every book I downloaded I made sure to convert to a non-DRM mp3 which, unlike some have mentioned, is not exactly an easy peasy & quick process for the vast majority most users out there. Anyhow, aside from that annoyance, the bigger issue I have with their current model is the bogus credit limit. They severely overcharge for all their books - most books that are longer than 9 hours usually are $15 or more and so you end up spending twice as much to get them as the 'credits' (Wii points) you buy ring in at $9.56. Unless they change that to something reasonable or go a more Netflix route, they will remain a RIAA wetdream in my eyes.
Now, if they charged just 1 euro per book, they will make, at most 24 euros per year from me. No more. I can't consume any more!
If they charged 10 euro per book (what the platinum credits works out at for me) they make 240 euros per year. Just like you are HAPPY to pay 40 dollars instead of 20 for NS2, to help support the game, I'm equally happy to pay a few hundred euros per year instead of a few dozen. For me, that is good value for money for the time I spend listening.
And here's the next big step. How many people listen to audio books? How many people even read books? I can tell you this: not many. Look at Rym's comments. Even if it were free, he wouldn't have time.
So, the only way for Audible to make enough money to exist is by charging prices higher than the not-even-casual reader is willing to pay. They can't rely on not-even-casual readers. They need people who love books to pay what they think it is worth.
Scott does this a lot.