Hello!

I started listening to audiobooks when I started having a commute in 2021 – I was spending just short of two hours a day in my car so it made sense to try out another form of reading and it really worked for me. I was getting through about a book a week, which makes total sense when I had at least 10 hours a week listening.

Now I’m not commuting and I don’t have as much time for audiobooks, I don’t get through them anywhere near as fast, but I’ve also gone from having one platform to listen to books, to inadvertently having four so I thought I’d talk you through the platforms I’m currently using, the pros and cons of each and whether I’ll actually be using all of them in the long run!

First and foremost, where it all began: Audible.

If you were watching YouTube between about 2012 and 2016, it felt like every creator under the sun had an Audible sponsor despite most of them never talking about books outside the sponsor read sections of their videos and I didn’t even consider it. In hindsight, I don’t know why – was it PDA (pathological demand avoidance), was it resentment for people taking a sponsorship deal for a product they almost certainly didn’t use, or was it that I didn’t think I could comprehend a story without visual stimulus? A bit of everything, but now that I’m more open the listening whilst I’m doing other things I’m head first obsessed.

I love Audible because literally everything is available, I love spending time evaluating what I want to use my credit on each month and the Audible Plus library is a great way for me to try new books without feeling like I have to take a financial risk on a book and it’s really exciting, I’ve found some really wonderful books in the plus catelogue.

There’s also a few books that are connected to Kindle Unlimited so you can get the ebook and the audiobook? Obviously KU is another subscription service but worth noting I suppose!

Overall, I like Audible – it’s definitely my default for listening to Audiobooks, I often plan how I’m going to use my credits and I like it as a service. I think it makes the most sense to me but I’ll get into that!

Next up, Libby:

I signed up to my local library last year almost exclusively because I wanted access to more ebooks and audiobooks for free. I think you can sign up for more than one library or maybe it’s a county-based thing in the UK, I really don’t think I understand the full scope of the potential of Libby! The main way I use it is if I want a visual accompaniment to an audiobook I’m listening to on Audible (for example: I’m listening to The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss which is 28 hours long and I think I’d be listening to it more often if I could co-read it) or the opposite where I want an audiobook to go with a physical read (example: when I read the first Killing Eve book, the chapters were really long so I wanted the audiobook to help me concentrate and using Libby saved me some money on getting extra Audible credits!).

I also used it to read a sequel of a book series I was reading where I listened to book 1 on Audible and book 3 was on Kindle Unlimited, so the library meant I could read book 2! The only thing I didn’t love about the ebook side of Libby is that in the UK you can’t connect it to your Kindle so I had to read it on my phone which I didn’t love, but there’s almost certainly ways around this that I haven’t figure out yet!

I think once I’ve got more control of my tbr (in approximately ten years), I’d love to make more use of the library to browse new books rather than browsing Waterstones and other bookshops! But for now, I try not to feel too guilty about not making the most of my library because it is a free resource and it’s not like I’m wasting money on it.

But it is fantastic to have access to so many audiobooks for free, usually without much/any waiting time because it is a generally underused resource!

Then, there’s the two new platforms I’ve been trying. Starting with BookBeat:

I’ve seen quite a few bookstagrammers doing ads for this service and I see it as an alternative to Audible that has a very different user model – rather than using a credit to download certain titles and having a ‘plus catalogue’ available, you pay a subscription fee and have access to the entire library, but obviously there are limits. On Audible you can access any audiobook that’s ever existed and either use a credit on it or pay extra for it, but with BookBeat you’re limited to the books that are in their catalogue.

They do have a pretty varied collection and some very modern releases in their catalogue, but the main thing that puts me off is that if a book isn’t in their catalogue, there’s no way to listen to it whereas with Audible, you can use a credit or pay extra for it, y’know? I’m currently using a 90 day free trial and already I’ve found that there was a book on my tbr that there was an Audiobook available for but I don’t know if it’s worth the subscription fee to feel like I’m taking a chance on what books are available? Not sure, I suppose I could tailor my reading to the books that are available on BookBeat but I do feel like I only need BookBeat or Audible, not both, so that’s where my decision lies at the moment!

And last but not least, we have Spotify:

I think it was a rather large update to Spotify to start including Audiobooks at some point last year. I already have Spotify Premium so I get to listen to 15 hours a month (which is definitely the weirdest part for me, but we’ll get to that!).

Again, it seems like every book you could possibly want is available on Spotify and the limit comes from only listening to a certain amount of hours per month and you can buy more if you get halfway through the book and want to finish it before the hours reset in the following month (and from what I understand, the additional hours you buy do roll over and don’t have to be used by the end of the month).

I tried my very first Spotify audiobook as an accompaniment to reading ‘Bride’ by Ali Hazelwood because I found that I was so sleepy I was reading maybe 8 pages a night, so listening and co-reading took less brain power and I could read about 50 pages before I fell asleep. I didn’t love the narrator but that’s not Spotify’s fault, it would have been the same narrator if I’d listened to it anywhere else.

But here’s my current debate – the next audiobook I want to listen to (because it turns out my favourite way to read is co-reading) is Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and it’s not on BookBeat or available at my library. I’ve got 8 hours left on my Spotify account to read this 15 hour audiobook, so I would need to buy a minimum of 10 more listening hours priced at £9.99 (on top of what I already pay for Spotify Premium) or I could buy it on Audible for £7.99, which is definitely another point for Audible. Though ideally I wouldn’t have to pay extra for it at all!

Essentially, I will probably listen to one-less-than-15-hour-audiobook on Spotify because I’m already paying for it for the music so it feels like it’s free. I suppose it feels a bit like Libby in that respect – it’s free (as a book provider) and I’m already using it for it’s intended purpose (music) so if I use it, it’s a bonus, if I don’t, no losses y’know?

So that’s my surprisingly-in-depth opinions on a bunch of different audiobook platforms – by the time my BookBeat trial runs out, I’ll realistically only have three platforms because I’ll either stick with Audible or switch to BookBeat but for now I’m switching between four different platforms… which is ridiculous, I know.

I love audiobooks and I’m a huge advocate for reading in ways that work for your brain, whatever that is! I love mixing things up – sometimes just audio when I’m driving or doing my arts and crafts, something just reading with my eyes, sometimes co-reading, ebook, paperback, hardback – so many options!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx