While audiobook subscription services like Audible do occasionally issue members with freebies, a better option for those looking to listen to audiobooks on a budget is built into the Google Play Books app.īack in 2020, Google started releasing free audiobooks via the Google Play Store that relied entirely on the company’s text-to-speech tech. ![]() There's a little of variety here, but nothing as deep or diverse as the libraries found with services like Audible. ![]() In either case, the Blinkist book list isn't hugely long and it is dominated by self-help texts above other genres. The appeal of the service is that you can get the gist of a given book without committing all the time it would take to fully read it.įor some, this shortcut might not sit well. It might be a little reductive to frame Blinkist as something like podcasts meet SparkNotes, but it wouldn't be far off. For example, Hugh Eakin's Picasso's War is broken out into 7 Blinks that run for a total of 20 minutes. Each Blink tends to be around 5 minutes long, but contain the big ideas of each text. The catch, if you want to call it that, is that you're not really paying for full-blown audiobooks but rather a playlist of episodic summaries called Blinks. There's no fussing around with credits, you just get access to everything the service has to offer (outside of traditional audiobooks, which cost extra). While the subscription-based app does offer a number of traditional audiobooks as a in-app purchase, the main draw here is that you pay one simple monthly fee for your Blinkist subscription and get access to the knowledge contained in thousands audiobooks. There's podcast integration, access to clubs, dedicated note-taking, a dedicated recommendations queue and a shortcut to member-exclusive deals.īlinkist pitches itself as the Audible alternative for the time poor. If Audible is sometimes painfully streamlined, the main menu on the app is bursting at the seams. The same praise can't quite be levied at the over app experience. For those who like the idea of a more buffet-style approach to audiobooks, this setup might strike a chord.Įven if they're not going to be for everyone, the VIP Selection and 's all-you-can-hear Clubs system represent intriguing possibilities that don't really have an equal within Amazon's own audiobook ecosystem. One credit gets you 30 days of all-you-can-hear access to every title included in the club. ![]() In addition to their standard allowance of credits, subscribers score a second book from this collection each month at no additional cost.Ī credits can also be traded in for access to one of the service's Audiobook Clubs rather than be redeemed for a single title of your choice. The biggest advantages that this Audible alternative has are the fresh possibilities it incorporates. The final perk worth mentioning here is that Audible members sometimes get access to exclusive member-only deals, letting them save on individual audiobook purchases.Ī checks many of the same boxes and meets most of the same needs that its biggest competitor does and, if you're sticking to the single credit plan, it doesn't cost a cent more. Some of the original titles here like It Burns, Riot Act and Nut Jobs are good enough that they almost justify the subscription cost associated with Audible on their own. This perk adds a clear bucket of extra value to the monthly subscription, and yet another reason to stick with the service. Accessible to active Audible members, The Plus Catalogue is a selection of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts that cost nothing to download but can only be listened to by active Audible members. What's more, a not insignificant chunk of this library is also included in The Plus Catalogue. All told, this puts it about 100,000 titles ahead of its closest rival. Most of these are in English, but the service does include a modest amount of French, Spanish and Chinese language titles. Each month you stick with Audible, you get another credit.Once you’ve redeemed your monthly credit on an audiobook, you’re able to listen to and download it as many times as you want and will still have access to it even if you cancel your subscription later down the line.Īudiobooks bought via Audible can be listened to via the Audible app, which is available on both iOS and Android.Īs for the size of the library, Audible currently offers around 400,000 titles to choose from. You pay Audible a monthly fee in exchange for a credit that can be redeemed for any premium audiobook available on the service. The service is owned and backed by Amazon, and while the details have changed over the past twenty years the business model remains both intact and intuitive. It's no accident that Audible has been the English-speaking part of the internet’s premier supplier of audiobooks for about two decades.
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