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Buy or Free Download
Buy MP3 CD or DVD
Buy preloaded MP3 player or hard drive
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MP3 or m4a format. (m4a must be ordered special)
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About 800 titles
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Compatible with any portable audio player. iPod compatible m4a files have to be purchased on a DVD, or converted in iTunes.
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Will play with any software. Large number of files. Audiobooksforfree sugest a Download Manager to help this.
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Download/Per Title
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8 Kb/sec -- FREE
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16 Kb/sec -- $3 USD
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24 Kb/sec -- $5 USD
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32 Kb/sec -- $6 USD
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48 Kb/sec -- $7 USD
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One title on MP3 CD -- $15 USD
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One title on Audio CD -- Depends on length of title, $7 per CD
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All books
9 MP3 or 10 m4a DVDs -- $100 USD
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All books
Preloaded onto a 30 GB Portable Player -- $600 USD
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All books
Preloaded onto a computer hard drive -- ??? Depends on size of drive
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AudioBooksForFree offers Public Domain books in audiobook form. You can download lower quality files for free, or they will sell you higher quality downloads, or MP3 CDs, or DVDs, or a pre-loaded MP3 player or hard drive.
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Free Download
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MP3, Ogg, m4a, spx, wav
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About 700 audio titles,
Over 20,000 e-books and audiobooks
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Books read by volunteers, computer read books, e-books, a few videos.
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Michael Hart, the inventor of e-books started project Gutenberg in 1971. In 1990
Gutenberg added audiobooks to their site. It's all Public Domain texts. You will find classics of all kinds, from Aesop to Tolstoy, and from Beowulf to Poe.
There are currently over 200 human narrated titles, the rest are computer generated. The human narration quality is good. Some files are of lower quality, for decreased size, but more than sufficient for voice reproduction.
Project Gutenberg started free books on the net, and is still instrumental in production
and distribution of free e-, and audio books.
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LibriVox was created in 2005 by Hugh McGuire. Its mission is to make all public domain works of literature available as audiobooks. LibriVox has a volunteer project where anybody can read an audiobook. Some foreign language books are available.
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Free Download
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MP3, FLAC
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About 15 titles so far
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Books read by volunteers, paid actors/preformers.
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Public Domain and Creative Commons books are available. Literal Systems prides themselves on the quality of their narration. The quality is good, the collection is small, seems to be an interesting project.
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Free Download, library card from praticipating library required.
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WMA
with
PlaysForSure10 DRM
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About 1,600 audio titles,
About 6,000 e-books
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Current titles, proffessionaly recorded by Recorded Books, Blackstone Audio, Books on Tape and other leading publishers.
Available in over 100 countries.
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NetLibrary has offered audiobooks since 2004. In order for you to access their collection, your local library has to be a member. If it is, you can log in, usually through your library's site, with your library card number, and 'check out' or download up to ten titles at a time.
All of NetLibrary's audiobooks are professionally recorded copyrighted books, provided by major publishers. All are in the form of WMA files that are encrypted with a PlaysForSure DRM protection scheme. This Digital Rights Management restricts how you can play and transfer the files. NetLibrary files can only be played for the length of the lending period, only on one computer, and only on 2 compatible portable players. After lending period, the file will stop working, but the license can be renewed by logging into your account again.
All audiobooks come as one very large file per title. It can take a while to download, and you better make sure your player bookmarks or keeps the place on shut off.
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Buy:CD, Tape, Download, MP3 CD
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Rent:
CD, MP3/CD
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Download Club:
PlaysForSure WMA
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More than 22,000 audiobook titles
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Tape, CD, PlaysForSure digital audio.
Not compatible with iPod.
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Purchase option is not available in Canada. Not all rental or download options available
in UK or Canada. Credit card payment only.
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1 Rental at-a-time
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US $143.40/yr, $14.95/mo;
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2 Rentals at-a-time
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US $251.40/yr, $24.95/mo;
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3 Rentals at-a-time
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US $359.40/yr, $32.95/mo;
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4 Rentals at-a-time
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US $443.40/yr, $39.95/mo
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1 Downld /mo
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US $119.40/yr, $11.95/mo;
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2 Downlds /mo
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US $227.40/yr, $19.95/mo;
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3 Downlds /mo
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US 323.40/yr, $27.95/mo;
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Purchase price is about equal to list.
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SimplyAudiobooks has a small selection of free downloadable audio books . While they are from Public Domain texts they are professionally produced and narrated. With the 'book of the month' feature we can only expect the collection to grow.
Both 'All you can eat' options are very nice. Shipping is free for the rentals. Downloads are
in the form of WMA files encoded with Janus PlaysForSure DRM. The DRM scheme lets you use downloaded files on one computer, transfer to an MP3 player
3 times, burn 3 CDs.
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Free Download
Creative Commons
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m4a
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About 150 finished audiobooks.
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Books read by autors.
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Podibooks is a newcomer to the scene, but already have a sizable collection. All titles are under Creative Commons lisence, so have been released by their authors. Donations to the authors are strongly encouraged on the site.
The narration quality is good. The site format is a little strange, but something you can get used to.
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