Why none of my books are available on Audible
doctorow.medium.com
doctorow.medium.com
The dig comes if you decide you have too many credits cached. Perhaps because you can't get through one audiobook a month. If you cancel a subscription for an account with remaining credits, you'll lose all your credits. Your choice is to either spend them all at once or keep your account active and keep paying the monthly fee while hoping to eventually pay down the credit debt enough to cancel.
The only thing that's compared in my experience is for Adobe Stock.
I bought a sub a year ago because there was a good deal ($5/mo for 6 months or something). Now I have a pile of credits and a recurring monthly charge. Yeah, I knew what I was getting into, but it's annoying all the same.
Their cheapest plan in the cancelation flow is "Switch to a credit every other month for $8.50/mo" which doesn't show a title in the UI but sounds like the "silver plan" from [1].
I've had a subscription for a while and it has helped me read more books but this cancellation policy is absolutely bonkers. They really are actively trying to hurt and squeeze the customer more than any other service I've used. I downgraded my subscription (to stop receiving credits) but I'm still having trouble using the credits I did build up. As soon as I'm done I'll be cancelling forever.
Personally, I have no trouble buying on average one book per month. I think that the ability to accumulate credits offers quite a lot of flexibility. Instead of being forced to buy one book every month, I can opt not to buy a book this month, but instead buy two books next month.
Although it is annoying that you lose all your credits if you cancel, there are plenty of books to spend them on. And I don't think it's entirely reasonable for Audible to hold on to your credits for eternity – since you could redeem them at any point, they'd have to keep a pot of money sitting around for paying rights holders. Imagine if something happened and a huge amount of people decided to redeem all their credits all at once – without a huge amount of cash set aside, Audible could have trouble fulfilling all those orders.
So I think the pricing system isn't so bad, but the DRM situation is very disappointing.
Credits or vouchers are not a new thing. Common schemes are limited duration, buying when you need them (possibly with bulk discount) instead of every month or buying every month but automatically stopping if you still have 10 stocked up (e.g. pop-up for phone's) or returning/selling unused vouchers for X%, ...
Given all these options available offering "nothing at all" seems not that reasonable.
It's clearly so that people like me who save credits and only use them on $22+ books have no idea what a book actually costs without looking them up. I buy anything under $12-15 with cash since credits are basically $12, at least in the 3 credit bundle.
Jokes on them though, now I buy even less books and stick to my unread library more nowadays.
Audiobooks used to cost like $30-$40 each, at least. With Audible, I pay a monthly fee and get access to books at $10 each. They also routinely have deals selling books for $10, or 2-for-1 deals, etc. The difference in price is huge and a no-brainer if you read a lot of books.
Note: I actually do the year-subscription plan, in which you get 24 credits for the cheapest price, to spend during that year. Buying extra credits will give them to you at that low price as well.
I have to be honest and say… I think I would be very frustrated with my spouse if this principle cost us so much potential financial freedom in other parts of our lives.
That’s not to say they shouldn’t do this. That would just be hard for me to swallow!
This mindset is a driving force behind our corrupt politics: sacrificing morals for money.
this person is just being a little weird and stubborn about this.
Audible members know what they are getting and choose to do so. Audible DRM is not a big deal, just use this Audible app, some of the arguments made in this article are invalid.
HN user: Not really a big deal though is it?
If you've paid attention in the last century or so - it is a big deal in countries all over the world, there is a global political crisis of people sacrificing morals for money.
What I am saying is that putting your book on audible is not really unethical. It's not such a big deal, people on audible know how the system works and the DRM is fairly irrelevant for most people without tinfoil hats.
Selling out on his principles to make half a million in the audible store might still be a net financial negative if it causes him to lose credibility with the many people who buy his other books and pay his speaker fees.
Also, making a big fuss about it is content marketing, which works because of his brand. He’s on the front page of HN with a blog post that mentions a bunch of his offerings/plays up the quality of his audiobooks. More financial incentive to forego the Audible dollars.
I guess I overestimated the returns to fame?
Heck, in this article he mentions spending $50k on recording a previous audiobook, which looks to be the cost of two years at Harvard. I’m pretty sure he’s got a lot of financial freedom already.
That kind of sacrifice is a negative sum game: when we all do it, we’re all worse off.
Still, it is worth commenting that there are trivial ways to remove DRM from Audible files. I myself do it to my own collection, partly out of "lockout prevention", and partly so that I can listen to the books using apps that I find infinitely more covenient and feature rich than Audible's own (shout-out to Podcast Addict).
I won't detail how it is done, out of respect for the fact that HN is based in a jurisdiction where the DMCA represses free speech on the topic. However, Doctorow could always release his audiobooks on Audible while pointing with plausible deniability towards information on how to remove DRM, hosted from countries where we're lucky enough that talking about technical procedures is not a crime.
The difference with audiobooks, though, is there are several audiobook retailers that are natively DRM Free, such as downpour and libro.fm. Why buy from the DRM’d vendor, who could increase their protection at any time, when you have DRM-Free options you could be giving your money to instead?
And then for new movies I use Amazon alongside a different program which works with that.
say i share with a loved one or close friend the de-DRM'd audiobook. now their computer becomes infected with a RAT, and 'my' file/audiobook fingerprinted with the proprietary fingerprint algorithm (to identify me as the unique purchaser, the same techniques are probably applied industry wide) is leaked online as a consequence (or their backup system is compromised or any kind of infosec violation out of the hands of my friend). next, Amazon corp identifies me. their immediate next step: lawsuit on me as an individual because 'my' file is now leaked on p2p filesharing sites and forums without me knowing about it.
capitalist-enforced DRM is cancer because it's artificial scarcity imposed on a non-scarce resource (computer data/audio file). it's the result of trying to work with the limited and violent toolsets of a capitalist economy.
the internet is still young and there are likely so many better options for publishing things.
for example, an author i've followed for a while by the name of Charles Eisenstein has a deal with his publisher, North Atlantic Books, to initially launch his book as paperback only, and then after a six month period, his whole book is available free to read on his website (also of course there's the wonderful Library Genesis).
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible by Charles Eisenstein: https://charleseisenstein.org/books/the-more-beautiful-world... (i love the final story 'A Gathering of the Tribe')
i just wanted to add my two cents after seeing encouraging discussions/debates here on this page. hybrid strategies like Eisenstein's give me signals that ultimately make me feel hopeful for a post-capitalist society which would allow any child to listen to any audiobook (and be infinitely curious in whichever direction feels most natural for them), regardless of whether their parents can afford Audible/Storytel/whatever. i focus on a child's curiosity because they suffer the most from the capitalist commoditization of culture and science and more.
"How does Audio Fingerprinting work": https://emysound.com/blog/open-source/2020/06/12/how-audio-f...
The watermarked music files I have come across only go as far as identifying the distribution service, not an individual.
From what I remember the metadata of account information is added as an editable extended tags. I actually don't know if audiobooks are even tagged by account in audible's case, it's true for iTunes.
Children will have access to free audio books in the US as long as libraries are around. I can get digital audiobooks for free from my library.
Libby/Overdrive and Hoopla are great, especially for children's audiobooks.
I don't know if your argument against using dedrm tools even makes sense. The point is that you shouldn't share your decrypted audiobooks. It shouldn't matter what happens to your friend's computer. More importantly, an audiobook isn't important enough to steal, that a giant leap.
Dedrming an audiobook is the only way I know to make sure that one day audible won't wake up and say, no we don't want you listening to that book anymore and just take it off their platform after I have paid for it. That's not a theoretical, that's already happened to some with certain kindle books.
Full disclosure, powered by my employer.
If I was a narrator, why wouldn't I do a basic search to see if the audiobook exists, or contact the author/publisher to verify ownership rights, before investing all this time and effort because someone said they own something?
We're trained to think of scams as involving Nigerian princes, misspelled e-mails, password phishing, .exe attachments, or "I've got a bridge to sell you".
It's nowhere near obvious how contracting an audiobook narration, of all things, could or would be a scam. You'd have to know there was a market/scam for counterfeit audiobooks which I never imagined until I read this. In fact, it's pretty convoluted and I'm still pretty surprised to discover it exists.
On top of which, contacting an author isn't always easy, and figuring out how to navigate from a publisher's consumer customer service to a person who can actually correctly verify rights is probably going to be a long annoying journey.
Why do people listen to them instead of reading books? Is it because, say, listening to one while driving is better than not being able to read since you have no time to do so? Or is there a specific pleasure in listening to a book read by someone else?
But listening to something is less of a commitment. As you say, can combine it with something else. So it's a way for me to ease back into reading mode again.
Edit: but I would recommend staying away from Audible. When I wanted to take a break from my monthly membership, they forced me to use all tokens I had amassed.
Audiobook players all have speed controls that let you make them go faster.
I know people who watch YouTube videos like that, and my brain cannot process spoken words so fast.
It also reminds me of hip hop, some of those raps are like a machine gun of words that overload the brain.
It's probably about personal preferences in "modes of thinking", visual, verbal, auditory, etc. I much prefer to read something than to watch a video or listen to audio, and can consume information the quickest.
Not at first. This is something that people train themselves to do gradually. For me it didn't take very long to get to 3x playback speed for audiobooks, which untrained people usually find incomprehensible, but I started out much slower and then increased the speed a little every day because I wanted to be able to listen to more books.
I've always wanted to deepen my knowledge of web accessibility, and get more familiar with screen readers - but was afraid it might be too frustrating to navigate while listening to a voice, slow enough to understand.
Now I know, it just takes practice. Thanks!
After a certain amount of minutes, at 1.5x speed, the cadence of lectures at high speed start to feel normal and going back to 1.0x speed feels slow, as if it was 0.7x speed. Sort of like an audio illusion.
It reminds me of the feeling you get when you have been on a highway at a high speed for hours on a road trip. For whatever reason, my brain stops understanding how fast the "slow" speed of 20mph is is. So it feels extra slow even though relative to walking it's really fast.
Recently I came across Jump Cutter https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jump-cutter/lmppdp... which is an extension to speed up silences while keeping spoken audio at normal speed. You can customize it, but it's been an interesting experience, the audio is at an effective 1.9x speed while only being 1.4x during the spoken section.
Screen readers have a place, but the value in screen readers for the non-visually impaired is limited to the text-to-speech function. After a certain point, the synthetic voices and physics make it hard to produce intelligible sounds even if your brain can process it faster. Certain sounds end up getting cut or the software starts skipping words and it not something you can fix for every scenario. https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/issues/131 an ongoing thread talking about how this can be mitigated.
I also know that some visually impaired people get used to certain voices to the point where they can make at words at a higher speed using a specific voice compared to others. The robot voices easier to understand than the more human sounding ones.
Getting to 3x is much much easier than you imagine, it will take less than an hour if you increase the speed by 0.2x every 15ish minutes. You get used to it really quickly. The human brain is pretty fantastic in that regard. I personally found that past 2.7x speed, even if I can understand the words, I can't comprehend new ideas and words fast enough for it to make sense and I end up having to pause. There definitely is a a point of diminishing returns, and for me it's around 2.6x, 2.7x. It depends on the lecturer cadence though.
If you want simple emulation of navigating using a screen reader, navigating having disabled your mouse is a good starting point. NVDA is the gold standard for screen readers.
There are books that are enhanced by a great narrator (Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson) or the author gives a bit of extra info/context while reading (Good to Great by Jim Collins).
Also, Audible has a huge selection of “Great Courses”, which are lectures from professors. Obviously, they aren’t as rigorous as a real college class, but I love being able to listen to 12ish hours of lecture about something I find interesting.
I listen to books at 1.2-1.5 speed depending on the narrator and topic, so that helps to not feel “slowed down”.
For my personal use, I tend to do podcasts/audiobooks in my car and sometimes when doing chores around the apartment. I can't read while I am driving or vacuuming, but neither takes much mental capacity.
No, I don't find movies slow. The rhythm of a film is the one that was decided by the filmmaker, so it's part of the experience(at least for fiction).
For fiction books, since the book is written, I expect to be able to read it at my own pace, and since I am a very fast reader, I usually end up 'waiting' in an audiobook, without getting anything extra in compensation. In other words, I'm frustrated by the fact that I could read much faster, but can't. I can understand from the previous answers that there are audiobooks/dramas with high production value though. I'll look into this. In such a case, I guess I should view the audiobook as a different object, i.e some kind of adaptation, much like books are turned into films.
Non fiction is completely different - I very much dislike anything audio/video. I need a book, since I want to be able to jump around non linearly (go back , skip, stop, explore this bit/ask a question , etc).
on the other hand listening opens up a number of other activities at the same time. i started listening on my commute. when that went away i discovered going for a walk as a replacement exercise and as a great way to get some listening time in. in fact because i want to get more time to listen, i end up going for longer walks.
besides audiobooks i also listen to audio drama and podcasts. i started with the latter. audio books came later, when i decided that i wanted to read more, and it allowed me to start picking up some books without changing my habits.
i love reading. i was a bookworm when i was a kid. i stopped because i got to busy and just would not find the time. i was also traveling a lot and didn't want to carry books around. if i pick up something to read now i loose track of time.
Not for everybody. I can't listen to an audiobook and do anything else at all if I expect to be able to actually absorb what I'm hearing. I find it amazing that other people can do that. Perhaps Agingcoder is like me.
An audio book can take a long time. Listening fast is a mixed bag. I generally have a poor experience. And I can take aural "input" quickly, and do that when it is about learning something, not pleasure.
A while back, I gave audio books another try. My brother in law loves them, BTW. He encouraged me to try again largely because he had one he wanted me to comment on.
I find my ability to visualize, become immersed in the story to the point where I do not notice I am reading is not as well developed when listening! For me, this is my number one reason for not using audiobooks.
For my brother in law it is the opposite!
I find it hard to restart sometimes too. Have to go back some and let the book ramp up. This is near instant when I read. Maybe go back a page or few tops, if it has been a while. I need to ramp up on a listen every time.
I bet something along these lines drives people to on medium or other. People appear to vary widely.
That said, audio books have some great use cases:
When reading, many labors can't be done. Listening works along with many labors. This is compelling! I personally prefer podcasts, but audio books will plug right in here.
I already mentioned immersion differences.
Some people really enjoy the readers inflection and characterization. I like this too. It is one of the better things about audio books, assuming one has some affinity for a reader. There definitely is potential for pleasure here. A great reader does add to the experience.
Shared reading! This one surprised me! I know a couple who listen together while doing other projects. Pretty cool! They just have it playing and do whatever they are doing.
That is all I got. Maybe it is useful perspective from a reader who prefers visually reading a book, but who has also appreciated audio books.
1. Sign in to audible.com.
2. Download the book file from your Library (the .aax file).
3. Use https://audible-converter.ml to generate a version of the ebook absent DRM. All processing happens in the browser.
They mention "Google Books, or Libro.fm, or Downpour" or having your own storefront, but it's mainly a problem statement.
> A policy cure?
Removing Section 1201 from the DMCA?
When I had a standalone music player, it was far easier to deal with random MP3 files.
Doctorow seems to have intended to release this audiobook on Audible for free. However, when I look it up on Audible's website, it is on sale for a regular price of £3.69 (or £3.23 / one credit for Audible members). I wonder why this is.
This is not a criticism of Doctorow; I think he probably doesn't expect people to actually pay for it, and he's released a DRM-free copy, free of charge.
I wonder if this is something that Audible enforces (i.e. they do not normally allow audiobooks to be available free of charge). I have seen some audiobooks available free of charge on Audible, but perhaps those are the exception rather than the rule.
Was it intentional? Can someone ping the author and see if they can remove the paywall to increase the blast radius of such an important piece?
https://craphound.com/news/2022/07/24/why-none-of-my-books-a...
You could write to the author and ask him why he posts on Medium. My bet is that posting in multiple places increases the blast radius.