Once upon a time, audiobooks were niche. They came in bulky sets of CDs or tapes. They cost a bomb. And when you wanted to listen to them you had to stick by your CD player, or spend way too much time ripping them onto your iPod.
Those days are over. Mobile apps have made audiobooks convenient, portable, and affordable. And there is perhaps no app more synonymous with the audiobook revolution than Audible. Owned by online shopping giant Amazon, Audible is a mega-library of talking books, sold at bargain basement prices.
So should you sign up for it? In this guide, we'll cover the ins and outs of Audible, its costs, benefits and alternatives.
Sign up for a 30-day free Audible trial
How much does Audible cost in Australia?
Audible is a subscription app. Membership costs $16.45 per month, and comes with one monthly credit to buy an audiobook of your choice, plus the option to buy as many extra audiobooks as you like for $14.95 each.
Your Audible credits roll over from month to month, which means there's no pressure to buy if you don't feel like it. Membership is contract-free, which means there's no commitment. There's also no loss if you cancel - you still get to keep all the audiobooks you bought as a member.
If you want to buy audiobooks from Audible without becoming a member, you can. However, if you're going to buy more than one or two, becoming a member makes a lot of sense. Non-member pricing on Audible titles typically ranges between $20 and $50.
What books are on Audible Australia?
The Audible Australia library boasts hundreds of thousands of titles covering every genre from crime to fantasy, literary fiction, biographies, business, health, self-development, children's, young adult, classics, modern bestsellers, and more.
And despite the fact that the company is owned by the US bookselling giant Amazon, the catalogue includes a wide array of Australian books. There are popular best-selling titles from the likes of Liane Moriarty, Leigh Sales, Tim Winton and Magda Szubanski, but also newer talent like Maxine Beneba Clarke, and Michael Mohammed Ahmad.
These days, if a book is modern and popular, you can be pretty confident you'll find it in the Audible library. And increasingly, older titles as well as books that are a bit more cult or niche can be found in there too.
While Audible is primarily an audiobook service, the company has been branching out into other forms of audio entertainment. Members now get access to dozens of exclusive Audible Original podcasts, including series by personalities like Bear Grylls, Stephen Fry, Bill Bryson, Annabel Crabbe, and others. The company has also been experimenting with "Audible Original" radio dramas and occasionally releases free member-only "Audible Original" short stories and novellas by well-known writers like John Scalzi and Dervla McTiernan.
The Audible library also now includes an extensive collection of lecture series from teaching company The Great Courses. These university-level courses, which can cost hundreds of dollars if you buy them through The Great Courses direct, cover topics like psychology, business, economics, history, science, and literature.
What do you get with an Audible Australia membership?
While the core offering of an Audible membership is one free audiobook per month, plus optional extras for $14.95, Audible offers a host of extra benefits for those who sign up.
Free returns - Members can return any audiobook purchased within the last 12 months for a full refund, for any reason. Audible doesn't specify any limit on how many returns you can make, so you could conceivably change your mind about any purchase. Reviewing my personal Audible account, I have successfully returned 10 audiobooks over the past 12 months, without challenge.
Editor's Extra - A monthly featured audiobook which members can add to their library for free. At the time of writing, Audible Australia's first two Editor's Extra books have been best-selling Australian novels The Dry by Jane Harper and The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Members can discuss or submit questions about the Editor's Extra via a dedicated Facebook group, and listen to an exclusive podcast What's the Story? in which a revolving panel of experts and comedians discuss the book of the month.
Kids Collection - A rotating collection of around 100 children's audiobooks that members can download for free. At the time of writing titles in the collection include classics like The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame as well as modern best-sellers like Alice-Miranda at School by Jacqueline Harvey.
Audible Daily Deal - A daily 24-hour sale on a selected audiobook. Books featured in the Daily Deal are usually popular or best-selling titles ranging from crime fiction to health, personal development, fantasy and literary fiction. Sale prices typically range from $1.99 to $4.99.
Member-only sales - Several times per year Audible runs member-exclusive sales, typically discounting 100-200 popular titles to $8.99. Buying audiobooks in the member sale is an extra cost on top of the monthly membership fee.
How do you listen to Audible Australia?
You can buy, download and listen to your audiobooks using the Audible mobile app for Android and iPhone or iPad devices. There's also a Windows 10 app and support for iTunes for anyone wanting to download and listen to audiobooks on their computer.
However, at its heart, Audible is a mobile app and there are a few features app-specific features worth mentioning here, like sleep-timer which will allow you to tell your audiobook to stop playing after a specific length of time, and "clip"-marking which lets you bookmark sections and find them again later. Chapter navigation does what it says on the tin. And car mode makes the interface larger and simpler to navigate, but check your state laws about operating a mobile phone while driving before you hit the road.
In terms of how many devices you can have activated with your account, when we reached out to Audible, they told us there was no limit. So you can theoretically share your account and your audiobooks with all your friends and family, without having to pay for a separate subscription.
What are the alternatives to Audible Australia?
If you want audiobooks on your phone but don't feel like Audible is for you, there are other options. Audible has a number of rivals in the audiobook subscription app space.
There's, Kobo, which costs $12.99 per month for one credit to spend on the audiobook of your choice. There's also audiobooks.com which costs $16.45 per month for one credit to spend on any audiobook of your choice, and a second credit to buy an audiobook from the service's "VIP Rewards" selection. Neither service has a content library as extensive as Audible's, but both have got plenty on offer. Kobo is the better choice if you want books by Australian authors.
Scribd is another Audible competitor, with an app that you can subscribe to for just $8.99 per month. Unlike Audible or Audiobooks.com, Scribd gives members unlimited access to its collection of audiobooks, which means you're not limited to one free listen per month. Scrib has a smaller collection of audiobooks than Audible and Audiobooks.com, but offers members access to a library of ebooks, magazines and - oddly - sheet music. You can dip your toe in Scribd with a 30-day free trial.
If you don't want to sign up for a subscription service you can also buy and listen to audiobooks on your phone through Google Play Books on Android devices and the Books app on iPhone. Audiobooks should cost around $25 each through either app.
Finally, if you're a member of your local library, you may find you're able to borrow audiobooks for free through library apps BorrowBox or Libby, by Overdrive. Each app will allow you to search for participating libraries on the sign-up screen. Then all you need to do to log in is supply your library card number and password. Collections aren't as extensive as what you'll find through paid services, but there are plenty of good listens on offer. Lend periods for audiobooks are typically 14-20 days.
Jacqui Dent
Editorial Strategist
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