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Comment by ScoutOrgo | Hacker News Reader

In my experience, audiobooks cost too much. They are more expensive than digital or hard copies, and the "subscription" is just monthly book credits. I get netflix for $11/month for unlimited use. Wish amazon would get something similar.

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I buy Audible credits, which come out to ~10/book.

I don't see an option for them on the non-logged in page, but I buy a set of them, and then can use them how I want, not per month.

While the Netflix model is nice for residual content, 90% of the books I want are available on Audible - I'd rather have that selection than a more limited selection I could get in a subscription model.

I think some places do a subscription, though - Have you looked at Playster?

That's interesting, I don't see the option to buy a credit on Audible but I've got the $15/mo subscription, maybe that's only available to non-subscribers. Could you post the URL to the credit-purchase page?

Audiobooks are expensive to produce, and generally have a smaller market than written copy (whether ebook or dead-tree).

I know at least one author has written about this: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2015/06/cmap-why...

I was taken aback by the price of audiobooks until I listened to the first Dune book (my first "real" audiobook) during a roadtrip and realized they use proper voice actors, score (admittedly very small) parts of it, and generally have a way longer credit section than I previously assumed. I do wish prices would come down a bit, but I can't say I blame them.

To say nothing of versions where it's just one person reading it straight through, though. Surely those are much cheaper.

I've listened to a handful of fiction audiobooks, and Dune was the only one that I've listened to that had multiple voice actors. I'm sure there are others, but it's uncommon.

I just read this article about Scribd's "unlimited" print and audio book service :

https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/scribd-reintroduces...

looks interesting.

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