Best Deals on Audio Books

Subscription services give some price breaks, but they still ain't cheap.

By Jeff Bertolucci, Contributing Writer

From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, October 2008

To kill time on long commutes, on the treadmill at the gym and even out walking the dog, you can't beat listening to an audio book. We have one gripe, though: They're too expensive. After all, you're not paying for the high costs of traditional books -- paper, printing, ink, delivery and bookstore overhead. So the price you're being asked to pay is just too steep.

PRICE CHECK: Hi-Fi Robbery
What the New York Times bestseller Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown, costs in different formats.
Amazon.com	$33.00
iTunes	$32.00
Rent	$18.00
Subscription service	$7.50
Library	Free

This is particularly true of audio books you download. What could possibly be the overhead? Paying someone to read the book? For example, Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown, costs $32 on iTunes. If you'd prefer the audio book on CD, you'll pay $33 at Amazon.com and a whopping $50 at Barnes & Noble's site, although B&N members get a $5 discount.

Phil Leigh, senior analyst for market-research firm Inside Digital Media, says digital audio books "are probably overpriced." The audio-books market isn't exactly "highly competitive," says Leigh, with sales roughly 5% of those of music downloads and CDs.

Benefits of membership. Still, if you show some commitment, you can get Angels & Demons for as little as $7.50. And by commitment, we mean subscribing to an online service.

Audible.com, recently bought by Amazon, allows subscribers to download one audio book a month. The service costs $7.50 a month for the first three months and $15 a month thereafter. Buying more books per month will cost you more. For example, it's $23 a month to get two books. You have the option to cancel at any time, unless you've signed up for one of Audible's annual plans -- then you'll pay in full.

Audible.com also sells audio books to nonmembers, but prices may be higher, ranging from $15 to $50. Simply Audiobooks lets members subscribe to downloads, with monthly plans starting at $15 for one book a month.

File format is a big issue with audio books. Most titles from Simply Audiobooks are in Windows Media Audio -- which can't be played on iPods, iPhones, Motorola RAZR phones and Amazon Kindle portable book readers -- although the site has recently added more than 600 titles compatible with iPods. But dozens of players, including the Creative Zen, and mobile phones, including the Motorola -- and the Samsung Blackjack, work with WMA.

Some services allow you to rent books on CD. For example, Simply Audiobooks charges $18 a month to borrow an unlimited number of books -- but you can get only one at a time.

The Internet is littered with audio-book sites offering free or cheap downloads. The catch is that the titles are often obscure or in the public domain (think musty classics) rather than today's bestsellers. For example, AudioBooksForFree.com has a generous (if eclectic) selection of free titles from H.G. Wells, P.G. Wodehouse, Guy de Maupassant and other long-deceased wordsmiths. But only the low-quality recordings -- what the site calls "bearable" audio -- are free; the higher-quality recordings range from $5 to $8.

A better option, if it's available in your area, is to download audio books from your local library. Online book distributors, such as OverDrive and NetLibrary, have teamed up with libraries nationwide to offer downloadable titles. For instance, the Denver Public Library has more than 2,400 audio books, which include many current titles. One caveat with library downloads: Most OverDrive and Net-Library audio books come only in the WMA format.

As more competition enters the downloadable-media market, consumers will benefit. With Amazon entering the market via Audible.com, there's a good chance audio-book prices will fall.

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