Why I Love Libro.FM for audiobooks

[jesse_the_k]

I enjoy reading audiobooks while I do my stretches and beadwork. I always check my library first¹, but if they don’t have it, I’m happy to use Libro.FM.

They deliver on their straightforward slogan: Listen to Audiobooks and Support Local Bookstores

You might think that Audible.com is the only place you can get audiobooks for your phone. Amazon promotes Audible on its site, and it advertises on countless podcasts and radio networks. I firmly believe Libro.FM is superior.

The Four Libro.FM Benefits

1. Libro.FM partners with local independent bookstores. In my case that’s A Room of One’s Own². Room gets a slice of every purchase I make on Libro.FM.
2. Libro.FM’s books are DRM-free, open MP3s. They’re not “licensed”–I own them. I can read them on any device I can copy them to. I can loan them to friends. (I could give them to friends, but–as a former publisher and bookstore lover–I pay for content.)
3. Libro.FM’s player app offers everything I need: bookmarks, variable speed playback, and a sleep timer (which offers to stop at the end of the current track).
4. Libro.FM is a bargain! Its membership model is very user-friendly. It cost $15 a month to belong and you get one free book for that $15. The beauty is you can put your membership on hold indefinitely. When my membership is on hold I own these books–since they’re open MP3s I can keep them stored on my computer forever. When I need a new book I visit the site, restart my membership, get another credit, get a new book, and put my membership on hold again. I just got a thick juicy history–These Truths by Jill Lepore–for $15 and look forward to 26 happy hours of listening and learning.

Two Drawbacks to Libro.FM

1. Some publishers require their audiobooks to be copy-protected. Those books aren’t available through Libro.FM because of their DRM-free policy.

2. Almost all Libro.FM partners are in the United States. There are a handful of international bookshops, none of them the UK or Australia or New Zealand. There is one global partner, Friends United³

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1. SCLS offers CD and Overdrive, a content delivery network for ebooks and audio. The Overdrive phone app is called Libby. It’s simple to search by title or author and place a hold. Libby notifies me when it’s available, and one tap downloads the audio files for playback in Libby. ↩︎

2. RoomOfOnesOwn.com ↩︎

3. Today I learned that the unprogrammed Friends I grew up with are not the only kind! Much more detail at Quakerinfo.org ↩︎

Comments

[julian]

Wow. Thank you, I didn't know about Libro.FM at all. AND they partner with a bunch of bookstores I love in MA, woo!

(And yes, the programmed Friends in the American mid-west (and bits of like, Nigeria) are way more conservative than the unprogrammed ones who are mostly in the US northeast and like, the UK and so on. (Richard Nixon's California Quaker upbringing was with a weird offshoot of the programmed Friends.)

My brother (of the unprogrammed New England Yearly Meeting) has basically been doing a mission to the programmed folks in Indiana, to help bring the two groups closer together. Or at least closer to understanding.)

[jesse_the_k]

I hope Libro,FM works for you.

A quick check of the FUM site and I realized just how different programmed Friends would be. They evangelize! My brief rabbit hole research left me believing FUM Friends are the majority of Quakers. !!

I grew up a secular Jew, and I went to Farm & Wilderness camps, Princeton Meetng, and my sister was married from Cambridge Meeting.

[julian]

The numbers over on Quakerinfo are really useful. (FUM really does evangelize amazingly effectively. I'd be unnerved, but for all that they're more conservative, they are still *Quakers*.)

...heh, my brother first got introduced to Quakerism via the Princeton meeting. (I mean, the one in New Jersey.) Oh, and was married from Cambridge Friends Meeting.

Me, I've never been to Farm and Wilderness, but Calluna went to a Witch Camp there.

[julian]

(Which, it occurs to me, you prolly knew, because, you read.)

[jesse_the_k]

Yeah, most days I read, but I can't count on the content actually passing through the eyeball-brain barrier, so no worries.

The Princeton Meeting House is a lovely place--I felt quite colonial sharing time with those present and three centuries of gentle ghosts.

[julian]

I, myself, haven't been to the Princeton one, but I did go to Birmingham Friends Meetinghouse (in southeastern PA), built in 1763, which had a similar feel. Layers.

[brainwane]

AHA - thank you for mentioning the solution to the Nixon mystery, which had low-level puzzled me for some time!

[muccamukk]

Oh, they have Canadian partners now. They didn't last time I looked. The restriction on books is going to be a big drawback for me. A lot of CanLit seems to be audible exclusive, but I'll keep an eye on them.

ETA: I also buy direct from Tantor and Downpour when they have sales. Downpower has a daily deal like Audible, and Tantor has a free book a month.

[jesse_the_k]

Didn’t realize Tantor sold direct! Thx for hot tips.

[muccamukk]

Thank YOU for reminded me to look at Libro again. They had a really good sale and I got three books for $20.

[jesse_the_k]

Woot!

[vass]

Thanks for the heads-up. I hadn't heard of Libro.fm, and they sound very relevant to my interests.

[jesse_the_k]

<3

[staranise]

I'm trying them out for a month. Do you have a referral code so I can send you a kickback?

[jesse_the_k]

Nope, didn’t even realize they had a referral program let me know what you think.

[umadoshi]

This is really handy info. ^_^ Thanks!

[jesse_the_k]

Happy to help.