Ins and Outs of Audible

Being both a librarian and on a budget I have traditionally been skeptical of Audible. Our library offers audiobooks on CD and downloads through the Hoopla app. I’ve built a small home library of audiobook compilations through library book sales and ebay. I didn’t think Audible would be for us, and I didn’t want to be locked into a monthly fee.

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And yet… I found myself signing up for a free trial. And then extending it. Here I am 11 months later writing a blog post about it. I cancelled for a few months but ended up signing up for another plan just a few weeks ago. Here’s what I’ve learned:

How Audible Works:

As of my writing, an audible membership runs $15 per month. This grants you one credit per month along with membership status, which knocks down prices on everything else on audible by 30%. Not advertised on their site is a “silver” membership that provides you with one credit every other month, charged $14.95 every other month, and membership status. My understanding from various Audible members is that you can access this option after trying to cancel from either a free trial or subscription period. It was an option when I canceled. (For “reason for cancelling” I clicked “too expensive” and the silver membership popped up as an option. I did not choose that option and later regretted it, so I contacted them and they did offer it to me. That’s what I have now. I can’t 100% guarantee it, but it seems to be commonly offered if you ask.) ************ UPDATE: Audible has changed their plans. I am currently still in the plan that I’ve described above, but they now offer two other tiers in which you have access to unlimited listens in their “audible plus catalog”- you don’t own these, but you can listen to as many as you like; this starts at $7.95/mo, and the top tier includes that AND one credit a month toward a book you OWN for $14.95/mo. Here’s where you can read the comparision of those two plans.
One credit means one audiobook… regardless of the original price. (Here’s a post I wrote about finding deals on chapter book collections.)
YES, you can purchase Audible books without a membership! The Audible app is free, and you can take advantage of their sales that are not members-only advertised. Sometimes you can find Kindle deals that offer you to add audible narration for a very reduced price (or free).
Members are entitled to the Great Listen Guarantee. This means you can return or exchange an audiobook that you’re not satisfied with for any reason within 365 days (as long as you’re still an active member).
If you cancel your Audible membership, you keep your books that you’ve used a “credit” to purchase. You bought them; they’re yours! (Also true of free trial books!)
Prime members get TWO premium selection titles with their 30 day trial.

Why I Liked Audible:

My very favorite feature is the functionality of the speed of narration! Our Preschool Bookworm’s speech therapist recommended to us that we dramatically slow down our rate of speech when reading aloud. This was tricky initially regarding audiobooks– our CDs obviously didn’t adjust, and our Hoopla offered the feature but then sounded slurred. I was pretty upset for a while when I thought we were going to have to give up audiobooks for a season while he pursued his therapy. Then we trialed Audible and found the narration comes out perfectly paced at 0.75x speed! Our speech therapist gave it two thumbs up! Even if your child doesn’t require speech therapy, this is a great tool to try out. Extra processing time is wonderful for young listeners! I have found that I like the slower speed now myself. 🙂
The Audible app is very user friendly! I found it to be super intuitive and Preschool Bookworm had no problem figuring out how to use it as well.
They provide substantial sample clips (5 minutes) to more easily gauge if it’s a good fit and if you like the narrator’s style. Narrators are KEY.
As mentioned above, a happiness guarantee! We have tried several books and had to abandon for various reasons (usually content wasn’t appropriate for my kids’ ages)…. and I’ve been able to return them and get my credit back no questions asked!
I love that I can download the Audible app to many devices and all of my books are available and synced to the last spot we’ve been listening to. This means that I can transition easily from listening in the car via my phone to setting Preschool Bookworm up with a tablet during his independent listening time. We can also play our audiobooks through our echo dot, or I can play it on my phone connected to a bluetooth speaker (so I maintain control of the screen). We bought an inexpensive bluetooth speaker and Preschool Bookworm got a CD player that doubles as a bluetooth speaker for Christmas (options!). While I’m thinking of it, are you aware of how to set up Guided Access on iOS devices so that your bookworms can’t get out of Audible and start browsing the web or playing apps? Here are directions (or triple click your home button).
Once downloaded (ideally while connected to wifi), you don’t use data or need a wireless connection to listen. (And downloading is quick! Usually while I’m idling in the driveway.) You can also select in settings to only allow downloads and/or streaming while connected to wi-fi.

Why I Cancelled:

We listen to our audiobooks over and over again. We don’t really need a new book every single month. (Which is why I signed up again at a “silver” status for every other month credits.)
I’m cheap and have cheap taste. The majority of the books I was placing on my Audible wishlist were not worth paying $15 per month for a credit. If you’re on the fence, take a browse through the Audible store. If the books you’d want to purchase are above $20, it might be worth it for you. (Keep in mind, if you’re on a trial period, the prices you’re seeing are now member prices, 30% cheaper than they’d be to non-members. So that $12 book as a member would actually cost $17 to a non-member. Factor that in as you’re weighing.) The books I was looking for frequently were older, shorter, not best selling blockbusters… so that surely impacted the cost.

Do you have any questions about Audible? Maybe I know the answer. 😉 Send me a comment here or on my Instagram or the Facebook page.

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.