Best Audiobook Sites for Those Who Listen to Books Often

Since we're talking about the market here and a commercial organization, naturally, there is a limit to the "unlimited"—according to the service's FAQ, if the automated system registers any unusual activity on your account, your access to certain titles can be restricted for a period of time. That is done to protect the service providers from commercial losses: the service providers pay publishers to loan you books at a more than affordable price and if the system decides you are listening to too many titles, more than it is normal for a single person and enough to cause some profit loss for Scribd, you will be presented with a limitation where you can listen to a preview for a book and the book page will show the date when you can access it in full. But fear not, the number of titles you need to go through to get yourself that red card is quite large so for an average book listener, this shouldn't be a problem.

To balance this seemingly unfair limitation, we can say that Scribd audiobook services are one of the most convenient there is. We've already mentioned it does not only offer audiobooks, right? But they do offer more than e-books as well. Scribd was founded initially to share documents and then it evolved but in a nutshell, it's still the same. On Scribd, you can not only satisfy your craving for some Fantasy of Sci-fi, in audio or in e-book format, but you can also find legal documents there, magazines, and you can publish your own content as well. It is a really multifunctional service.

Finally, there is the service flexibility. Very few audiobook sites can compete with Scribd in this department. On this service, you can not just listen to books and read them, you can create collections, add bookmarks, save titles for later, add notes and highlights, share them. But as we're reviewing the audiobook side here, we'd like to point out customizable jumps as you listen to the book and a selection of speeds that can cater to just about any avid book lover; and, the cherry on the top—a sleep timer for the most passionate. If you love bedtime stories and to fall asleep to a pleasant voice narrating an interesting book, you can set a timer for the app to turn off automatically at some point so that the book does not end without you hearing it as you sleep soundly. Isn't it just the best?

Scribd is more than a place to get audiobooks, it is a service for those who seek a single place to get data of any kind.

When you sign up with Audiobooks.com, you get your first book on the house, at no cost. You will have 30 days to decide if this audiobook service is worth the money, browse over 125,000 titles offered and see if they have all the books you want to listen to in the next months. The browsing is quite easy to get a grasp of, you can choose a genre, a narration length, and whether you need an abridged or an unabridged book. There aren't any extra filters right away but you can set the sorting the way you like, be it by duration, alphabetically, by ratings, etc. Audiobooks.com also offers lists of books made by the staff, which are basically narrowed down and more precise genre-based listings with unique names; these lists are updated frequently and the staff keeps pace with the time (like, they have a NaNoWriMo list where books like Stephen King's A Memoir of the Craft can be found and a list of books that came to cinemas ad TV this year).

Even without registering for the service, you can check out the lists, browse the website, and listen to samples. Most samples are 3-minute long, some are 5 minutes, but there are titles with samples for like half an hour. You can get a pretty good image of the book and the narrator like this and decide if you like them, so it's neat.

Audiobook sites rarely have blogs of their own so this feature has been a pleasant surprise for us. The staff of Audiobooks.com writes book recommendations, posts interviews with authors, news on the audiobook market, and even hold giveaways. While there are a lot of bookstagramers and book bloggers/vloggers today, having a blog for audiobooks is a neat perk for a site that sells them. Makes it quite unique.

The catch in attractive audiobook sites like AudiobookNow here is this: to get the most of them, you will need to dedicate some time to browse the genres and titles that interest you and see what kinds of discounts are offered on them. Discounts are usually prone to changes, you can buy today with 10% off and tomorrow, you'll check out the same title and it's 25% off; or vice versa—you see a 10% discount and decide to wait a bit but when you return a couple days later there is no discount at all. What we are trying to imply here is that AudiobookNow is a very nice service indeed but it is best suited for those who have both time and desire to dig out the best discounts from the heaps that the audiobook service offers. It is not as easy as it might seem but when you are in luck, you can save a lot of money (and then spend those savings on more audiobooks).

To help you, if only a little, not miss the best prices, this audiobooks service has a section called Specials. That is where the biggest discounts are gathered for the users to check out. There, you will find only a drop in the ocean of discounts but those will be the most beneficial. For all others, you can always browse the lists—they are conveniently arranged by genres and subgenres. There are also lists for award-winning novels, bestsellers, new releases, recommendations, and more.

The AudiobooksNow app is available for Android, iOS, and Kindle Fire e-readers. Some users state it to be a little cluttered but it does offer the most important features, like browsing and purchasing books, playback at one of two speeds, the option to jump back to re-listen some part you got distracted at or forward to skip. As it is a store and not a rental service, the books you've purchased will stay with you even if you decide to cancel your subscription. You can listen to your books from the app as well as from your PC or laptop browser. AudiobooksNow is an excellent service for anyone who listens to a lot of books and wants to save money.

The Kobo audiobook service is a result of the partnership between Rakuten Kobo and Walmart and the app it uses is actually called Walmart eBooks. The app is quite intuitive and easy to get used to. You can online listen to audiobooks or you can download them via Wi-Fi for road trips and commute, to save on the use of your data plan. Inside, all the features you might need are included: you can get personal recommendations based on what you've listened to before, browse trending and best-selling books as well as current discounts. And of course, there is a browse by category option. Inside the player, you will have several narration speeds to chose from, a customizable jump length, and a flexible sleep timer that you can set for the app to turn off when the chapter ends, for example, or simply after a certain time. The app will remember where you've stopped and will sync your progress with any of your devices.

These features are not unique to this particular service but they do make the whole experience this much more pleasurable. You can also choose the background color for the app, though. Little as it is, it's a nice feature. There is a night mode as well, to not strain your eyes.

Exclusively for customers from the United States, the Walmart eBooks app and Rakuten Kobo audiobook service offer a $10 discount on an e-book or audiobook when you sign up with the app. Besides that, Kobo has a very attractive loyalty program called Kobo Super Points. These are bonus points that are allocated to your account every time you make a purchase of either an e-book or an audiobook, every time you pay for your subscription, and every time you purchase instant credits; when there are enough points collected, you can redeem them for audiobooks and e-books.

Besides downloadable audiobooks, Downpour also offers physical copies—CDs and Mp3 CDs. If you like to listen to books, say, in your car when you go for road trips, or you are just a little into old style and love CD players, Downpour is one of the few audiobook sites who offer physical copies of audiobooks. But that's not all either. Starting 2014, this service also has a rental service on digital audiobooks, you can save quite some money if you rent instead of buying. Rented titles will be accessible through your account for either 30 or 60 days depending on your choice at the checkout but you can extend that period by 5, 10, or 20 days if you need. Finally, in 2016, Blackstone has launched their printed books publishing service and you can get those books from Downpour as well, in paperback or hardcover.

Do note, though, that out of all the listed options, credits can only be used on digital purchases of audiobooks. All other options, buying and rental both, are paid for separately.

Downpour allows listening to books across as many devices as you own. Your progress will be saved and synced so that you could pick up where you've stopped even if you change your gadget.

The Downpour website is exceptionally user-friendly. As you browse the categories, you see large covers, the categories themselves are divided into subcategories, and each book page has not only the regular information like the name, author, narrator, summary, and price but also some info about the author besides their name; most titles feature editorial reviews as well, spoiler-free, and some have reviews from regular readers. It is a nice feature for those who simply browse the digital library in search of what to download or listen online, no particular title in mind. You can leave your reviews on the site as well.