Audible.com vs. iTunes Music Store for audiobooks
The most recent summary comparing relative merits of purchasing audiobooks through Audible.com vs. iTunes appears
here in a thread that discussed browsing for audiobooks in iTunes. Podunk has written
an excellent guide to Audible and there was also a
recent iPodLounge Guide to iPod Audiobooks. Audible is scheduled to open a UK store on June 15 to go along with its services in
Germany and
France.
There's a large overlap in book offerings from Audible.com and the iTunes Music Store, but the selection is not identical: there are some Audible titles that are not carried at the iTMS and while best sellers usually appear promptly other titles can lag (for example, Carlos Ruiz Zafon's
The Shadow of the Wind just appeared on iTMS, a month later than its Audible debut). The publisher of the Terry Pratchett books decided to pull these from Audible, but continue to sell through the iTMS, but that's unusual.
Edited comment: These have just been reinstated as of June 13.
fondoo said:
which one do you guys recommend? audible.com books seem cheaper than itunes.
List prices on Audible.com run somewhat higher than on iTMS. Audible is running another sale right now where many titiles are 50% off, and so cheaper than through iTMS. There have been a number such sales over the last 6 months. I notice that the difference between the list price on Audible and through iTMS has been increasing over this period, with the list prices of some Audible titles going up based on popularity gauged during sales. In one case, I recall they were applying price increases on the last day of a 2-for-1 sale. If you're purchasing a la carte this may be a factor, but as arsolot notes, there are a number of benefits to subscribing, including the ability to download your audiobook multiple times.