Audiobooks

Buy Audiobooks

Rent Audiobooks

Join A Club

Free Downloads

There are many places you can get audiobooks, and many ways to get them. Here you can review online stores, book clubs, and rental services. There are also some free downloads available, and your local library will have some auidobooks.

Abebooks.com

USA | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Spain

Buy CD, Tape


About 25,000 Cassete and CD audiobooks, 13,500 booksellers.

Payment Method
PayPal, Visa, American Express, Mastercard, Diners Club, Cheque, Money Order, Bank Draft.

Delivery
Many titles with 'No minimum purchase' free shipping. International shipping anywhere in the world.

40%-60% off list price for new books

New and Used items available. 90% off and more on used items

AbeBooks has some 13,500 sellers. The service is very well managed, there is a 30 day money-back-guarantee, resonable, and often free shipping. Many rare titles are available, there is a 'want' option, in case you can't find what you want.

Amazon.com

Buy CD, Tape


Over 150,000 Cassete and CD audio books; paper books, music, videos, more.

Payment Method
Credit Card, USA checking account, Purchase Order.

Delivery
Free shipping on orders over $25

30%-60% off list price

New and Used items available

Amazon A-Z guarantee covers all purchases Amazon is a great place to shop for books, movies, music. And if you live in the USA, you can shop in 35 product categories, including electronics, food, shoes, etc.

Audible.com

USA | France | Germany | United Kingdom

Buy Download
Download Club

Over 30,000 titles

.aa format
Can be used on 3 computers and 3 compatible MP3 players. If you no longer wish to use the service, you need to keep a free acount to keep using your purchased titles.

Payment Method
Credit Card, Money Order, Bank Draft

Delivery

1 Book/month + 30% off all

14.95/mo

12 Books at once + 30% off all

149.50/Year

2 Books/month + 30% off all

22.95/mo

24 Books at once + 30% off all

229.50/Year

0 Book credits. Purchase digital downloads. Keep your existing downloaded files alive.

Free

Audible has been dedicated to audio books online since 1995. Their rapidly growing collection is spoken word only: best selling books, educational material, self help, documentary. Compatible with 192 audio players, including iPod. Files are very small. If you unsubscribe from the service, you will need to keep a free acount with them to still use your existing purchases.

Audiobooksforfree.com

Based in UK

Free Download
Buy Download
Buy CD, DVD, preloaded hard drive or MP3 player
About 800 titles

MP3 or m4a format. (m4a must be ordered special)

Payment Method
PayPal or Credit Card

Delivery
Post. Works with a download manager.

8 Kb/sec	16 Kb/sec	24 Kb/sec	32 Kb/sec	48 Kb/sec
FREE	$3 USD	$5 USD	$6 USD	$7 USD

One title on MP3 CD

$15 USD

Some titles on one DVD

$25 USD

All books 9 MP3 or 10 m4a DVDs

$100 USD

All books Preloaded onto a 20 GB Portable Player

$600 USD

All books Preloaded onto a computer hard drive

??? Depends on size of drive

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. Large number of files for free downloads. Audiobooksforfree sugest a Download Manager to help this.

BOOKSAMILLION.COM

USA | Canada

Buy CD, MP3 CD


About 37,000 audiobooks on CD or MP3 CD

Payment Method
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, US Check, Money Order

Delivery
Free shipping on orders over $25 Some international shipping options available.

Regular prices on the site: 37% off list

Bargains Section: up to 75%+ off list

Great book store. Free shipping on US orders over $25. No return/exchange to the regular retail stores.

Booksfree.com

Rent CD, MP3/CD, paperback
CD Club

Over 13,000 CD and MP3/CD audio books; 79,000 books.

Payment Method
Credit Card, USA checking account

Delivery
Free shipping both ways, First class U.S. mail for audiobooks.

CD or MP3/CD

1 at-a-time

$19.99/mo

2 at-a-time

$24.99/mo

3 at-a-time

$33.99/mo

4 at-a-time

$39.99/mo

MP3/CD only

1 at-a-time

$9.99/mo

2 at-a-time

$15.99/mo

3 at-a-time

$23.99/mo

4 at-a-time

$31.99/mo

BooksFree is an interesting service. There is also a paperback service with prices ranging from $9.99 for 2 books at a time, to $37.99 for 12 at a time. The faster you send your books/CDs back, the faster you get the next order. 2 to 3 rotations a month might be possible.

Buy.com

Buy CD, Tape


Over 2,300 audiobooks on CD

Payment Method
Credit Card, Personal Check, PayPal, Money Order

Delivery
Free shipping on books over $25

30%-70% off MSRP

Save 30% more with Buy.com Visa

Buy.com wants to be the best place to shop online. With their 10% price guarantee, lots of payment options, available free shipping in US, and more, they might be. New, used, reconditioned items available.

Chapters.Indigo.CA

Buy CD, Tape


80,000-100,000 Books on Tape or CD, over 3 million paper books, DVD movies, and music CDs

Payment Method
MasterCard, Visa, American Express

Delivery
Free Canadian shipping on orders over $39

Regular prices on the site: 30% off list

Books Outlet, Used Books: up to 80%+ off list

Ultimate Canadian shopping experience. Returns and exchanges to retail locations across the country. Join the ireward program for more savings

www.gutenberg.org

Free Download


About 700 audio titles,

MP3, Ogg, m4a, spx, wav

Payment Method

Delivery
Many small files to download. Works with a download manager.

Good quality recording

OK download speed

Some audiobooks are computer generated

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.

iTunes

United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, and Australia

Buy Download


Over 3.5 million songs, more than 30,000 audio books (Audible collection, and more), 65,000 free Podcasts

ACC, m4a

Payment Method
Credit Card, PayPal, bank account, iTunes gift certificate

Delivery
Requires iTunes, and Quick Time. Works only with iPod, iPhone, and some mobile phones

About 25% off list CD price for audio books

99c a song, $9.99 a movie, $4.99 iPod games.

Thousands of free podcasts

iTunes store is very popular. You can get all your entertainment from one spot, and for a good price, with audiobooks, movies, music, and so much more available. The free podcasts are great, no sign up required. Purchase music is subject to 'Fair Play' DRM restrictions.

JIGGERBUG.COM

Rent CD, Tape
Download Club

About 37,000 audiobooks on CD or MP3 CD
CD or MP3 CD

Payment Method
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover

Delivery
Shipping only to US. Download content is DRM protected time restricted rental.

1 CD/Tape Rentals at a time

$14.95/mo

2 CD/Tape Rentals at a time
3 Downloads a Month

$24.95/mo

5 CD/Tape Rentals at a time
6 Downloads a Month

$39.95/mo

6 Downloads a Month

$24.95/mo

Jiggerbug.com has a nice selection and a few options for accessing it. DRM restrictions for downloaded books are severe, and downloads amount to renting, not purchasing.

www.librivox.org

Free Download


About 1,000 titles so far

128kbps or 64kbps MP3; ogg vorbis; iTunes podcast

Payment Method

Delivery
Many small files or one large zip file of entire book. Works with a download manager.

Good quality recording

Good download speed

Books read by volunteers, service principals; audio plays.

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 volunteer to read an audiobook. Some foreign language books are available.

etc.usf.edu/lit2go

Free Download


Over 900 titles

MP3

Payment Method

Delivery
Many small files for larger works, often on different web pages making it hard to download.

Good download speed

Good quality recording

Read by several very good readers

Lit2Go is a project of Florida Center for Instructional Technology and University of South Florida, College of Education, funded by Florida Department of Education, and Bureau of Instruction and Innovation. The extensive collection consists of most texts required in high school education including textbooks, works of fiction, poetry. The titles include anything from a short nursery rhyme to grade 12 textbooks to complete major works of world literature, and range in length from under one minute to many hours. Although it is not specified who the narrators are, the narration quality is superb. On download pages for every title there is such information as bibliographical information for source text, short abstract, reading level required for the text. There is also text and PDF versions of all works available for download. Downloading larger works can be tricky because the small chapter sized files are placed on separate web pages. The entire collection and a few extra titles is available on iTunesU.

www.literalsystems.org

Free Download


About 15 titles

MP3 and flac

Payment Method
Free

Delivery
Many small files for larger titles. Some titles are produced in collaboration with Loudit.org For those titles you can download mp3 from Loudit.org and .flac from LiteraSystems

Good quality recording and production.

Books read by volunteers with good selection and production.

Not all files are available in .flac

Literal Systems is a small but interesting project with high quality volunteer narration, and dedicated high quality production and recording. Literal Systems collaborates with several other free audiobook sites to produce and distribute their titles. Their recordings are available under Creative Commons copyright, with some restrictions such as non-commercial use.

www.netlibrary.org

Free Download
(Membership in participating library is required)

About 1,600 audio titles, About 6,000 e-books

WMA

Payment Method
Requires participating library\'s membership. Available in over 100 countries.

Delivery
One large file per title. Does not work with download manager.

Current titles, professionally recorded.

Recorded Books, Blackstone Audio, Books on Tape and other leading publishers.

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 Subscription 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 PFS Subscription 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.

www.podiobooks.com

Free Download


Over 150 finished titles

MP3, m4a

Payment Method

Delivery
Small chapter sized files. Works with a download manager

Books are read by the authors

Good quality recording.

128Mb MP3

Donations to the authors are encouraged

Podiobooks.com is a relative newcomer to the scene and yet already has a sizable collection. All the books are under Creative Commons license, meaning they have been released by their creators for free to the public. These are mostly fresh titles from lesser known authors.

Simply�Audiobooks

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Buy CD, Tape, Download, MP3 CD
Rent CD, MP3/CD
Download Club
About 20,000 titles
CD, MP3 CD
WMA

Payment Method
MasterCard, Visa

Delivery
US Post Express Mail. Rental deliveries seem to arrive at a rate of one a month, limiting number of books you can listen to to the number of selections in your plan

Rent

1 Rental at-a-time

$15

2 Rentals at-a-time

$25

3 Rentals at-a-time

$34

4 Rentals at-a-time

$41

Download

1 Download /mo

US $143.40/yr, $14.95

2 Downloads /mo

US $239.40/yr, $21.95/mo;