Audible FAQ

What is Audible?

Audible is a leading provider of premium digital audio information and entertainment on the Internet. Audible specializes in the spoken experience, providing digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, original programming, and TV and radio subscriptions.

How does Audible work?

Consumers have a choice between joining one of Audible's membership plans or simply purchasing the content at Audible's online store. If you sign up for a membership plan, you will receive a certain amount of credits each month in exchange for a monthly fee. The credits are used to purchase audio content, which is then downloaded and played back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady® computer-based and wireless mobile devices.

What kind of content does Audible have?

There is currently over 50,000 audio programs to choose from. These include digital audiobooks from dozens of genres such as mysteries and thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, history, literary fiction etc. All the popular authors such as Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Stephen King... are included and represented with their entire backlists. If you are more into classics you'll find everything from Shakespeare to Tolstoy to Hemingway. There are thousands of titles on business, education, self help, health & fitness, religion & spirituality, science & technology, language instructions... and much more.

In addition to audiobooks, Audible also offers newspaper subscriptions such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, The New Yorker... to mention just a few. You can buy a single issue or subscribe to future issues.

Members can also purchase or subscribe to radio shows and podcasts such as This American Life, Car Talk, The Ricky Gervais Show, In Bed With Susie Bright... and many more.

What are the benefits of membership?

Savings, first and foremost. For one credit (which can cost you from $9.56 to $14.95, depending on the plan and the length of your commitment), you can get pretty much any audiobook or other audio program from Audible's huge library. Seeing how plenty of audiobooks are priced at up to $70 (or more, on occasion), it's clear there are substantial savings to be made on a single audio program.

Furthermore, as a member you get 30% off any additional items you buy at the Audible store, which are not covered by your monthly credits.

Free audio newspaper (either The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal) is delivered to each Audible member's library each weekday.

Special e-mail offers featuring even more savings are available to members on a regular basis.

What membership plans are available?

Currently, you can choose between two membership plans: Audible Gold and Audible Platinum.

With Audible Gold you get one credit per month for which you are charged $14.95 monthly fee. The credit can be used to purchase almost any audiobook available in Audible's library (some rare exceptions apply) or any other audio program. If you sign up for the annual plan you get two months of membership for free and 12 credits all at once. The price of a credit in this case is $12.46 (17% off).

Audible Platinum plan is aimed toward more demanding listeners. Here you get two credits per month for a $22.95 fee (or $11.47 per credit). Again, signing up for the annual plan will get you two months free in which case the price of a single credit drops to $9.56.

To sweeten the deal for new members even further, Audible is offering special introductory deals for both plans. Currently they look like this: if you sign up for the Gold plan you get 50% off the first 3 months of membership – that's 3 audiobooks for $7.49 each. Audible Platinum, on the other hand, offers a free 14-day trial so you can evaluate the service properly before making a commitment. You will be allowed to download 2 audiobooks of your choice for no charge – which you will be able to keep even if you decide against retaining your membership.

Can Audible files be transferred to portable players?

Yes. Hundreds of devices are currently supported, which includes the majority of mp3 players from major manufacturers (including all iPods) and some other gadgets: PDAs, mobile phones and GPS devices.

Click here for a complete list of compatible devices