AUDIOBOOKS VS. AUDIBLE

As a home-schooling mom, I am always pleased to let somebody else do our scheduled reading so I can get to the more mundane aspects of life in a big house filled with kids – yes, that generally means cleaning…

When deciding on how to purchase audiobooks for my children (and me) to listen to, the number one consideration would be the cost. Of course, the quality of the audio book’s narration would also be a consideration but the cost would ultimately be the deciding factor.

There are great options for us consumers out there in terms of where we buy the audiobooks and with everything in life, we have choices.

Audible offers a subscription-based package where you can buy your audiobooks to download directly into their audible player (the audible app is necessary). Our windows audible player seems quite basic with no special features. Every time I open it up it shows me the options to update but none of them is really relevant to us – so long as the player works – which it does, we are happy. The app is available to use on most smartphones, tablets, readers (iPhone, android and windows platforms) and can also be played through iTunes and MP3 players.

The subscription cost for Audible is $14.95 and listeners get to download one book per month with the option of purchasing extra credits or paying individually for their extra audiobooks. Audible also has great sales on selected title ranges quite often. One proof buying on Audible that not many people know about, is when you buy a book and you don’t enjoy it (even if you have listened to all the way through), you can return it and exchange it for another. When Audible is lacking specific titles that I am looking for, I have to either buy MP3 format from one of our online retailers or Audiobooks from the Google Play Store.

Google Play offers Audiobooks for under R170 ($13.48) with no subscription and they integrate to Google Assistant which means – when I’ve finally managed to get my kids to stop arguing, eat their dinner and sit down quietly, after a long day of hauling them around town – “Ok Google” has my back and a long bubble bath is doable.

Google’s selection of audiobooks is not as extensive as Audible’s – yet. Given that they only launched their audiobooks in January 2018, Audible still has some years on them but the great thing about Google Audiobooks is that it is possible to have a family library so that everybody can go and get quiet (on their own devices) at no extra charge to us.

All in all the price difference between Google Play’s Audiobooks and Audible’s platform is not alarming and with the mix of books available between the two, I have come to the conclusion that it is probably worth hanging on to the Audible subscription and using Google Play Audiobooks for books that I can’t find on Audible. At the end of a long day, when reading to tired children is the last thing on my wishlist, I can count on both Google and Audible to save the day (or night).