Thinking of dropping Everand (i.e., Scribd) and going back to Audible. How is Audible's free-to-subscribers content?

Cafe Society
1

I used to have an Audible subscription which I dropped awhile back, and then I signed up with Everand and I’ve had that for about a year. Everand has been great; a subscription doesn’t give you an audiobook to own every month, but the content they do have available for download. They often have current releases available almost immediately, when I would have to wait weeks or even months to get the same material from my local regional public library consortium.

As for Audible, while the opportunity to choose and fully own one book a month is attractive in this SaaS world, I do need access to a lot more than that to meet my listening needs. With an Audible sub, you do get access to a library of free-to-subscribers content, so what my question boils down to is this: how good is Audible’s “free” content?

I can’t really say anything about my literary tastes that would help anyone to answer this question, because at one time or another I’m interested in almost everything. One week, it might be Gore Vidal’s novelization of the Emperor Julian’s writing, and the next week it might be the memoir of the late Sonny Barger, founder of the Oakland Hells Angels. A midcentury northeaster corporate milieu story like The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit and then the latest Harry Bosch or Lincoln Lawyer novel from Michael Connelly. In other words, basically all over the map. I should mention that I’m also interested in science and technology, but much of this content isn’t well suited to the audio format, due to the inclusion of technical diagrams and/or mathematical equations.

Thoughts?

I need to decide soon, before starting another novel on Everand.

2

If your tastes are broad enough, and you take the approach “let’s see what’s available” (as opposed to “I want to listen to these specific books”) you can find a lot of good stuff available “free” for members on Audible.

I just tried visiting the website in incognito mode, and unfortunately, I don’t see a good way to see what’s “free” (i.e. included with Audible Plus) if you’re not already a member. If you gave me a specific genre or category or short list of authors, I could do a search and see what’s included, if that would help.

3

Everand decided for me. They canceled me saying there’d been an issue with the last payment on 6/15, but I had no idea since they were still providing access as of yesterday.

It was time to change. I was thinking of going back to Audible anyhow, so that when Mark Lewisohn’s next massive installment of his stupendously gigantic 3-volume Beatles bio drops, I can choose that one to keep. Seriously, the first volume, which goes through to the end of 1962 was so good I’m just hoping Lewisohn doesn’t get run over by a bus or something so he can finish.

4

They change which books are available for free from time to time. They’ll give you a few weeks notice when one is about to become unavailable. It won’t be removed from your library, if you’ve downloaded it, it will just be unplayable.