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Comment by xupybd | Hacker News Reader

Do people source audiobooks from somewhere that they can use clients like this? I use audible but don't know of a good alternative.

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Stripping Audible DRM is surprisingly easy. Download via the desktop, and run a single docker command:

    docker run -v $(pwd):/data ryanfb/inaudible@sha256:b66738d235be1007797e3a0a0ead115fa227e81e2ab5b7befb97d43f7712fac5

The resulting m4b file has proper chapters, so works everywhere, but I tend to split it further[0],[1]

[0]: https://github.com/captn3m0/Scripts/blob/master/split-by-aud...

[1]: https://github.com/captn3m0/Scripts/blob/master/split-audio-...

I've used https://openaudible.org/ to download my Audible library before, if you want a fairly simple GUI.

If you don't want to pay $12 for a GUI nor use Docker:

1. This tool can be used to extract your encryption keys: https://github.com/inAudible-NG/audible-activator

2. ffmpeg -activation_bytes XXXXXXXX -i name.AAX name.mp3

If you're doing that you might prefer to output to opus instead. Speech compresses well so you get the benefit of smaller files and have more space for other media. Just replace name.mp3 with ..." -c:a libopus -b:a 24k name.ogg"

If you're going to use a less compatible format than mp3, it is far batter to just swap the container and not transcode it:

-i in.aax -c copy out.m4b

1. does not transcode 2. captures and retains all of the metadata

Yes, I'm usually strongly opposed to lossy transcodes, but for portable listening of speech heavy content on a space-limited device, that plays Opus easily, it can be a worthwhile trade-off for many.

I'm using Libro[0], which is essentially a DRM free Audible (including the membership!). It's a bit of a hassle to sign up without a North American Credit Card (you can only buy their membership with one, but you can gift it with a CC registered anywhere else, so I gifted myself one).

It lacks Audible exclusive titles (which are shockingly many!), though.

Before that, I used to strip the DRM from my audible books (easily doen using ffmpeg)

[0]: https://libro.fm

Downpour.com sell DRM-free audiobooks, but lately I noticed a couple of titles in their library that are DRM-protected, so I don’t know for how long that will last.

In their library I did find most of the titles I was interested in, selection is good, content is high quality, so I've been enjoying it.

This is the second time in jus t a few days that i've heard reference to downpour. (The first time was from Cory Doctorow on a recent TWiT episode: https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/786?autosta...) I guess I'll have to check it out!

I've been meaning to try https://libro.fm. Maybe this is the nudge I need.

In addition there’s https://librivox.org/ for volunteer-read public domain books!

https://audiobookstore.com/ has a pretty extensive range of DRM-free titles.

Local and regional shops. Audible doesn't have some of the voices where I live, because it is regionally locked (I live in Sweden).

Library rips.

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