Price of (some) Audible content is absurd

[redandgray]

I just purchased "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" through the iTunes store. I didn't look too closely at the price because it was my first purchase and it was exciting, but then I got to thinking. This is a pretty old book by now, it shouldn't cost over US$30 for a hunk of old data.

Sure enough, on Amazon.com, the paperback is $14.95 list price, discounted to $10.47. Audible sold it to me for $35.95, which is over THREE TIMES the cost of the paperback, with some left over to cover shipping. Even more amazing, Audible lists a "retail price" of $56.95, so I guess Audible is really giving me a great deal here... not. I don't know how they came up with that retail price, but it looks like they took the price they wanted to charge and added 50%. Nobody ever seriously tried to sell this book in any format for $56.95.

OK, so you might say that price reflects what it would cost to buy the book on cassette tape, because that's a more expensive medium, and you're almost right. The list price of cassette tapes is the same as the actual price of data from Audible, but Amazon discounts the tapes to $27.97. And, of course, I'm not buying cassettes, I'm only buying data, online, with no human intervention required (other than my own).

Oddly enough, while I was looking into this, I saw that the $35.95 price has been (temporarily?) reduced to $9.95 for a promotional deal. Too late for me to benefit, but if you ask me this should be the normal price for this book in Audible format.

Bottom line: I feel like I got burned by Audible, and I will be leery of buying anything else from them.

Paperback on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393316041)

Audible book (http://www.audible.com/adbl/store/amazonProduct.jsp?amazonCategory=product&productID=BK_BLAK_000016)

Cassette tapes on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786122129)

[Mario]

I couldn't listen to audible books, but that's just me + I like to have books. They look nice on my shelf.

[mjd1969]

The key to using the Audible system is to have a subscription and not buy books individually. I agree with you. Some of their book prices are simply outrageous. For my $20 subscription price, I can pick any two books from their library. Last month I got two books worth more than $80. I can listen to what I want to without worrying about price. Of course, this only works well if you listen to a lot of books. My commute makes it very worth while.

Mike

[redandgray]

Last month I got two books worth more than $80.
That calculation only works if you believe Audible's retail pricing fantasy.

Audible would not last very long if they actually sold stuff for one quarter of its real (or even its perceived) value. Have you ever been to a used car lot where everything is always "marked down"? This is exactly the same thing.

In reality, you probably got two books worth about $19, and Audible pocketed $1 in profit.

[dordale]

redandgray--

I have to disagree with your analysis of audible's subscription.

I have been an Audible subscriber for over two years now, and I still believe it's an incredible bargain! (Since I've been a member for so long, my monthly fee is $14 for two books--but I still think it would be a good deal at $20.)

You can't compare audible books to paperback books, as that is like comparing apples to oranges. Purchasing unabridged books on audio cds or cassettes will most likely run you anywhere from $25-$50 (or higher) apiece. There are places that you rent audio books from (www.booksontape.com and www.recordedbooks.com) to name a couple, but these rentals run you about $15-$25 each, and you don't get to keep the book!

I also prefer the convenience of audible's downloaded files over bulky cassettes/cd's. I can load hours and hours of books on my iPod and not have to carry around tons of cassettes or cds.

I do agree with Mike--audible isn't for everyone--you do have to listen to a lot of books for the plan to make sense.

dordale :)

[Wheels]

You also have to consider the studio time and often the actor/actress that reads the book. All of those cost makes audiobooks more expensive as well. They perform a service of reading them to us therefore there is a service fee.

[redandgray]

The consensus seems to be that Audible is a reasonable deal if you buy the $20/mo. subscription (and actually use it). I'm inclined to agree with this assessment, although I'm not sure a subscription is right for me.

So far, nobody has justified the exorbitant price of my original purchase. I'm not buying cassette tapes, so it's not the cost of the media, and the up-front cost of producing a recording is nowhere near enough to triple the cost of a book, especially one that has now been in print for decades.

In my opinion, Audible is indulging in a bit of monopolistic pricing. If you are giving them $20/mo. of guaranteed revenue, you get one kind of deal on pricing. If you are a one-time customer, you get a very different kind of "deal". More competition would tend to even out this sort of discrepancy in the pricing of electronic goods, but for now it looks like Audible has cornered the market on its array of spoken media products.

Caveat emptor.

[Podunk]

The fact is that the MSRP's you mentioned are set by the publisher's not by Apple, and not by Audible.

Both Apple and Audible sell the audiobooks at a significant discount to MSRP on an individual basis, and Audible offfers an even greater discount if you join their "book club"-like subscription.

:P

[AmethystA]

You may be interested in knowing, that the $56.95 Audible says is the retail price is in fact what Blackstone Audio Books charges for the audio tape version of this book on their website. I'm not sure how Amazon can discount it so far, but hey, that's a good consumer, when you find an item you want at a lower price. :-)

On the whole, I've found Audible to be to be a great value for me. I didn't have much selection at our public library for Audio books, and I prefer listening to unabridged books, which you can hardly find under $30 and most being $50 or more, which I just couldn't swing. I've been with them for over 3 years now, and keep thinking I'm going to run out of titles I'm interested in, but so far, no, and they've added alot of new ones in the last couple of months.

[redandgray]

You may be interested in knowing, that the $56.95 Audible says is the retail price is in fact what Blackstone Audio Books charges for the audio tape version of this book on their website.
http://www.blackstoneaudio.com/audiobook.cfm?ID=2185

Reality check: Blackstone charges only $24.95 for the MP3 CD of that book. If Blackstone didn't have to manufacture and ship an MP3 CD, it would presumably cost even less.

I'm truly glad everybody is happy with their Audible subscriptions. However, anybody that honestly believes they are getting $80 worth of books every month for just $20 sounds a bit naive to me. Nobody stays in business selling everything at a 75% discount. Buying two books a month for $10 apiece is a good deal, but it's not that good of a deal. You get what you pay for, usually.

I didn't start this thread to criticize Audible's subscription pricing, which actually seems pretty decent to me. My point was that individually "packaged" items are priced irrationally. I still stand by that opinion, and I can only hope that market forces will eventually eliminate this imbalance. In other words, some other distributor will realize that there is good money to be made from non-subscription sales, even without gouging the customers' wallets.

In the meantime, I will tell my friends that Audible products are seriously overpriced, unless they are willing to buy a subscription.

[AMRivlin]

Since there is never an obligation unless you get a player, the system is hardly a subscription. Since I can call and axe my plan any time or put it on pause, how is it any different than putting a big banner on the front of the site: Buy any 2 books for 20 or 1 + radio for 15. This is verified by the Ultimate listener plan.

[bordeaaj]

I agree on both sides of this argument. I do one hell of a lot of driving in my job and I used to spend way, way, way too much money on books on tape and cd. It seems to me that any which way you cut it audiobooks really are ridiculously priced. But the audible.com 2 books/month subscription is like a godsend to me. It is literally saving me hundreds of dollars a year (probably over a thousand the way I eat these things up). I have been an audible member for close to a couple of years now and still each and every time I download a book, especially a new release, I can't believe I am getting it for only $10. Audibles subscription plan is well worth it.

[david1951]

I start with the statement that I love Audible and I think (with a subscription) they offer very fair value. However, the issue that RedandGrey raises is a fundamental one about the value of information, of pure data.

Steward Brand, in his 1988 book about the MIT Media Lab, had some interesting things to say about all this. It was in his book that I first read the phrase "Information wants to be free" which I think is very insightful.

He makes the point that if you sell someone a cow, you get some money, your customer gets the cow, end of story. Sell someone some data, you get some money, the customer gets the data, YOU STILL HAVE THE DATA and can sell it again. Replace "cow" with "cassettes" or "CDs" and the analogy is clear.

In theory, Audible could sell you the data for 10c per book and still make a good profit in the long term if the volume was high.

But what it comes down to is: what price will the market bear? $10 per book (with a subscription) seems to me to be a fair market price, and one which I am generally very happy to pay - because it has that much value to me - it gives me at least $10 worth of pleasure/relaxation.

And Audible is certainly not a monopoly, there are several other sources of downloadable audio books.

[Podunk]

David, there is one point on which the "cow/cassette/CD analogy for free digital information falls flat. I know we agree on the end here, but I'm just rebutting anyone who thinks that.

When you buy a "audio CD" which is a physical good, you are not buying it for the sake of having a round shiny-disc like object to look at. You are in fact buying it for the information contained on it. Same with software, printed content, or any other intellectual property.

The physical medium on which it is distributed is largely irrelevant and a very insignificant portion of the cost. A physical CD costs about three cents to produce in mass qty and about the same for the case. So does that mean, when you buy a music CD, you should get it for 10 cents? I don't think so. To the contrary, the value is contained in the intellectual work.

[david1951]

Parannoya:

I want to know where you are getting your CDs replicated !! I have CDs replicated as part of my business, and it costs me at least $1.50 per CD. And for audio cassettes the duplication, manufacturing, packaging, distribution are very, very much higher.

I agree that when you are buying a physical CD your prime aim is to get the information. But the same could be said for buying a book, for which the production costs are certainly much higher and for which the end physical product does have some intrinsic value (at least it does to me). A physical CD does have SOME (though small) intrinsic value to the case, the booklet, the storage medium. By downloading music you are saying that you are prepared to do without all of that or that you will supply the materials yourself.

But what MUST be paid for in any scenario is rewarding the original author and paying for the recording artist and studio. None of the latter is cheap (I know).

The question in the digital world is how to calculate what price per unit is appropriate when duplication and distribution is essentially free.

Since, given the chance, people will illegally copy intellectual property and pay nothing for it, it seems that you need to reward the artists and pay for the studio with the first batch of copies released, because you will assume that once released, the work will be pirated freely with no further payments. So maybe those first copies should cost say $100,000 each, not 10c!

If you rush to say this is crazy, think about the fact that "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (hard copy) was on the Amazon best seller list for months before the book was even released, courtesy of "pre-orders". What's to stop an artist announcing that they won't release their new book or CD until pre-orders have reached a satisfactory level?

A whole new approach to copyright and rewarding artists will eventually come out of this, but we are not there yet.

[kgirlsbug]

Ollie's bargin outlet routinely has books on tape/cd/and radiospirits shows for about 10 bucks each...random selection at any time. Public libraries here have high numbers of books on cassette and cd too.

[velodev]

Originally posted by Mario
I couldn't listen to audible books, but that's just me + I like to have books. They look nice on my shelf.

why are you even in this audible forum, then? trolling?

[W9FIF]

"They look nice on my shelf".... cracks me up!! That'd sure be the reason I bought anything!! NOT!

Geez! But, in hindsight, I have to remind myself that a fair number of our members here have yet to achieve puberty. Not a criticism, just an observation.

[Anachronism]

Ok I am digging up an old thread here but...

To me the price of audio books seems completely absurd. There is no way I can pay $30 to $50 for an audio book, I would rather listen to talk radio or get what I can from the library for free. If the price where more like $10 I would be willing to buy and listen to audio books, surely there are enough people like me that the lower price could be made up in volume.

If you buy a book on cassette or CD you have a copy of the book that is yours to sell if you would like. So you should be able to sell the used book for about 1/2 what you paid for it. In my opinion, if nothing else, the price of just data should reflect the fact that you do not have a hard copy you can sell when you are done with it.

[dordale]

Anachronism--

You'd better head over to audible.com right now--they're having a sale that runs through the 24th of September.

I think it's for members only, but you can buy any book (and as many as you like) for $9.95 a piece. If you do have to sign up for a membership, you can choose to get 1/2 off your first month's dues.

As far as I can see, there's no restriction, so you could choose the books for one month's subscription and buy as many books as you want for $9.95/month and then unsubscribe.

Of course if you decide you want the free Muvo player, you're locked in for 12 months. The going rate of their subscription is 1 book & 1 magazine/radio program/newspaper subscription per month for $14.95 or 2 books for $21.95. IMO both deals are very reasonable.

I agree that $30-$50 for a downloaded audio book is way out of line...Audible's member prices are great...there non-member prices aren't.

dordale :)

[robert]

Hey Guys and Gals, we better hope that uninformed (nice word for it?) buyers continue pay the outrageous prices for single copies so that Audible can stay in business and provide us members audio books at about $10. We need their support, spread the word!

From: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=ADBL and http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=ADBL&annual

Net Income Applicable To Common Shares for years ending 12/31 last three years (000's) = ($10,661) ($18,553) ($27,718)

Net Income Applicable To Common Shares for last four quarters (000's) = $237 ($10,430) ($4,438) ($2,771)

Finally turned a quarterly profit.

Audible is trying to take a page from the Microsoft book -- produce Office for,say, under $10 and sell it for $300.
If they do, we should all own their stock and not worry about what we have to pay for audio downloads. Now that would be nice thing to put a stock certificate on the book shelf and admire it ten years from now -- IF audible becomes a really profitable company.

If it doesn't work financially, then audible will go out of business or be bought by someone like Books on Tape where prices for CD's or MP3's are much, much higher than audible membership deals.

For flexibility try Ulitimate Listener thread for $120 for 10 books and two years to attain flexibility.

If you want to complain about something real, try getting our government to get out of the way of getting really high speed bandwidth to our homes. S. Korea has whole number multiples of our high speed home band width at about half the price.

[kgirlsbug]

humm audible bought books on tape as far as I can gather from their site

[robert]

Originally posted by kgirlsbug
humm audible bought books on tape as far as I can gather from their site
Not that it matters a lot, but I think you will find that Books on Tape is a division of Random House ( http://www.hoovers.com/books-on-tape/--ID__56547--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml) which is listed as a strategic partner of audible. Of course, audible titles include many Books On Tape productions.
It is interesting that BOT is discontinuing rentals (http://www.booksontape.com/rentalinfo.cfm)
Perhaps I should have said that Random House might buy audible if it fails, but I am really hoping that Audible will be fantastically successul.

[Podunk]

Originally posted by kgirlsbug
humm audible bought books on tape as far as I can gather from their site

Audible did not buy Books On Tape. They just have a marketing partnership with them to be their audio download provider.

Regarding prices, retail prices for single book purchases are discounted somewhat from their cassette or CD Audio counterparts, while club members get significant discounts. That is the concept of any kind of book or CD club. They can sell you product at significant discount if they can count on you buying more volume in the future. But If you buy one book a year ala carte, you pay Audible's retail price instead of the discounted members price.

Robert, I don't recall the number exactly, but its something like 80 or 90% of their sales come from subscribers. Only a very small part is ala carte sales to non-members.

Yes, I hope they can increase their sales enough to survive also. I find it to be an invaluable service and I don't know what I'd do without it.

It does look like things are starting to look up for them now that the iPods have become more popular.

[galaxygrrl]

This thread is silly.

An Audio book that is some reading to you for hours is different than a paperback.

Audible MRSP is what you would pay for the book at Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc

As for the paper back audio book comparison, it's truely apples and oranges,

You can buy a play in the bookstore for $10 in paper back and then go see on broadway for $100. If you could read it, why would you pay the $100. Because it's a different experince.

Cheers,

Beth

[Anachronism]

Originally posted by galaxygrrl
This thread is silly.

An Audio book that is some reading to you for hours is different than a paperback.

Audible MRSP is what you would pay for the book at Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc

As for the paper back audio book comparison, it's truely apples and oranges,

You can buy a play in the bookstore for $10 in paper back and then go see on broadway for $100. If you could read it, why would you pay the $100. Because it's a different experince.

Cheers,

Beth
The play comparison is not really acurate, every show of a play costs money to put on. Even a book has printing & shipping costs for every copy. An audio book has one fixed cost, the initial reading and recording, the cost of distributing it as just data is next to nothing.

My point is there is no way I can afford to pay (or would be willing to pay) $30-50 for an audio book, when there are free alternatives like talk radio and borrowing from the library. If the price was more reasonable like in the $10 range I would be willing to pay for it. Assuming there are a lot of people like me they would make up the price difference in quanity. IE; 10 copies at $50 = $500 profit, 100 copies at $10 = $1000 profit. Since the distribution cost of an audio book as data is next to nothing all sales are almost pure profit.

My second point is when your are buying an audio book as just data the company should pass the savings of burning, packaging and shipping a CD copy on to you. Also when you have a CD copy you could sell it after you are done with it and recover about half of what you paid for it. From what I have seen most place charge the same for just the data as they would for a CD copy.

The sale prices at audible are getting pretty reasonable, but I really do not want to be locked into a contract.

[arsolot]

Originally posted by Anachronism
An audio book has one fixed cost, the initial reading and recording, the cost of distributing it as just data is next to nothing.

. . .

Since the distribution cost of an audio book as data is next to
nothing all sales are almost pure profit.


While it may (or may not) be less expensive to distribute an audio book through Internet sales, I'd guess that the distibution cost (as data) couldn't possibly be next to nothing as there is the cost of the hardware/software for the distribution network along with the cost of connecting to the Internet. I've no idea what these things cost, but I'm guessing that Audible.com and others would be amused to hear that cost of distributing the audiobooks compared to next to nothing.

Originally posted by Anachronism
The sale prices at audible are getting pretty reasonable, but I really do not want to be locked into a contract.

I agree that Audible's prices are very reasonable, especially compared to the cost at a local bookstore. This is clearly true when all Audible content sells for $9.95.

I'm not clear about being locked into a contract. Can't most Audible subscriptions be cancelled?

[velodev]

Originally posted by arsolot
I'm not clear about being locked into a contract. Can't most Audible subscriptions be cancelled?

Depends on which "promotion" you chose when signing up. If you went with the *ack* Otis player, then you are locked into a 1 year agreement. This is also true with $100 off any iPod or iPod mini promotion. Otherwise, no. If you signed up with first month free... you can cancel at any time.

I haven't seen this come up as an argument (probably because it is off-topic) but even after you have signed up for the monthly $14 or $19 plan and get your book(s) and periodical... the biggest gripe I have is the lack of bandwidth for delivery. It's horrible. Yesterday, all day... I couldn't download my Car Talk episode. It would time out each and every time.

Second, if you fail to buy your book(s) and periodical for one month... the remove the credit? WTF? Didn't I pay for it? Well, for one time they will credit you back but don't do it twice. You'll lose all $14 or $19 for that month. Makes no sense...

Either way, my opinion, is once I get Sirius in the car and possibly see some good reviews of the RadioShark... welp, I'm canceling Audible. They used to be a more customer-centered company, now I couldn't tell you what their main interest is.

[Podunk]

To further detail some of the above comments....

1) N) contract is required for Audible. Period. You can purchase books ala carte (one at a time) or you can join the Members club on a monthly basis with NO COMMITMENT. Generally, you get the best deal if you join the Members club, but you can cancel at any time.

Even if you are not a member, you can take advantage of the sale prices, (like $10 for ANY book-even $70 ones) if you make your purchases during sales events. You only need to create a log-in account, not join the Members club, to access certain sales.

2) If you choose, you can get $100 off an iPod (or other player), if you commit to remaining a member for one year. But this is totally optional.

3) Audible has a new feature where you can put books in que so in case you forget to download. They also offer the UltimateListern plan which lets you pay in advance and download books on your schedule. whether its ten at one time or over two year period. (This is what I have, and I really like it).

4) As you mention, if you are on a monthly plan and you forget to get your books, Audible will issue you a credit. And now they have implemented the cue list as a fail safe. I don't think you will many companies more customer-centered than that.

5) I don't know about the bandwidth problems. I've been using Audible for four years, and download problems have been the exception, not the norm for me.

With all that said, if it doesn't work for you, thats fine too. I'm just sharing the info and my experience to provide additional opinions.


P

[velodev]

Thanks for the echo. I think my post explained the contract situation pretty well.

As for the queue, I don't think that solves the issue with "you must buy within this month". Books are continually coming out and sometimes I just don't have time to compile a laundry list of books. Why shouldn't it carry over? One month I have the urge to read a business book, the next a comedy, the next John Stewart's America. A laundry list solves nothing when I want a book, basically, now.

I think Audible eating the credit is the exact opposite of customer centric. It seems like they would rather have forced purchases (queue aka guaranteed membership) rather than 'I'll browse at my own leisure'. If they WERE customer centric, credits would remain. I paid for them, why do I have a time limit when I can use them?

Does Paypal, for example, just erase any credits on my account if I don't transfer or use them within 30 days? And Paypal, IMO, is one of the worst customer oriented companies on the net. Besides Google, try finding their 800 on their site within 10 minutes. Good luck.

Also, what happened to Online Chat Support? Gone. Why? No idea. Wait times? I called three times over a 4 day period all wait times required at least 15 minutes before I received support. Why was I calling... to get my credit back because I didn't use it from the previous month.

I've been a customer for over 2 years. I can honestly say that if you haven't seen a decline, you must be one of their spot-free customers. Kudos to you for being so easy to work with. As for me, I believe better bandwidth, shorter wait time, carry over credits, and online chat was the Audible.com of the past... nowdays, no longer.

[Anachronism]

Originally posted by arsolot
While it may (or may not) be less expensive to distribute an audio book through Internet sales, I'd guess that the distibution cost (as data) couldn't possibly be next to nothing as there is the cost of the hardware/software for the distribution network along with the cost of connecting to the Internet. I've no idea what these things cost, but I'm guessing that Audible.com and others would be amused to hear that cost of distributing the audiobooks compared to next to nothing.

I agree that Audible's prices are very reasonable, especially compared to the cost at a local bookstore. This is clearly true when all Audible content sells for $9.95.

I'm not clear about being locked into a contract. Can't most Audible subscriptions be cancelled?
I am not an expert on internet sales but it doesn't seem like it could cost that much to distribute data. With some quick poking around I found one host that offered 80Gb monthy bandwith for $9.95, if an audio book is about 500 Mb you could transfer 160 audio books for a cost of about 6 cents each. There are many online 'shopping cart' type programs and some can be modified for downloadable items. I belive credit card companies get about 30 cents per transaction.

A larger company would probably want there own harware but the main reason to buy your own harware would be if your cost where lower than using a third party host.

I was confusing the membership that came with the $100 gift certificate with the regular audible membership.

Is the $9.95 deal for as many books as you want or only for your first book? I couldn't tell from the audible site.

[arsolot]

Originally posted by Anachronism
Is the $9.95 deal for as many books as you want or only for your first book? I couldn't tell from the audible site.

Sorry for confusing things about the $9.95 price. Audible has twice had a sale where any book was sold for $9.95. The most recent time was a few weeks ago; they also did it a few months ago. So, for $40, I got 4 books, which I think is quite a good deal. One of the books I bought, Loamhedge, carries a retail price over $80, and an Audible price of $62. I bought it (for my son) for $9.95 while the sale was in effect.

[Podunk]

Velodev- as for the "echo" I had typed most of my message simultaneously to yours and I realize it was partially redudant, so I just added a few additional points. (ala carte, and buying during sales).

As for quality of service, maybe its a matter or perception too. As I said, I've used Audible for over four years. If you think anything about it is deficient now, you should have been around back then. :D

1) I totally agree with you on the dissapointment of them no longer having chat support. This bums me out. Fortunately, I've been using Audible long enough that I rarely need support. But still, when I did, I prefer online support.

2) It seems to me that Audible offers a variety of purchase options to fit different people's needs. A monthly plan may be perfect for some, but not for others. In that case, they offer ala carte purchase options, as well as the UltimateListener Plan. (For ala carte purchases, if you buy on sale, you can get good savings. They tend to have some kind of sale every month or two.) I switched to the UltimateListener plan and it suits my needs much better than a monthly plan. I'm not saying its perfect, just that there are different options.

3) Honestly, I've had bandwidth issues from time to time, but like I said, its the exception, not the norm.

I know they've had ballups during their "All the books you want for $10 each sales" when everyone jumps on at the same time. Earlier this year, they had a message on the help section saying their servers were overloaded and they were upgrading at that time.

Other than that, I get fast downloads. Typically, only a few minutes do download a twenty hour book. How about others of you? Are you getting satisfactory downloads, or am I just lucky? (broadband users only, please).

P

[arsolot]

Originally posted by parannoya
Other than that, I get fast downloads. Typically, only a few minutes do download a twenty hour book. How about others of you? Are you getting satisfactory downloads, or am I just lucky? (broadband users only, please).

P

My downloads have never been an issue for me. Also, when I acquired books during the sale, I didn't download them during the sale, but later, when I was ready to listen.

[robert]

No probs here. Fast download, very reasonable prices compared to others, great selection of books.

Have you done the tools, internet options, delete files, ok thingy to reduce the clutter in your temporary files? That could seriously slow your downloads or break off. Could also be your very own isp. I get 145 on one DSL connection and 75 on another DSL connection.

[dordale]

No problems downloading here...I would guess (haven't officially timed it) that my downloads take about 15 min for a 5 hour book in Format 4.

dordale :)

[velodev]

Originally posted by robert
No probs here. Fast download, very reasonable prices compared to others, great selection of books.

Have you done the tools, internet options, delete files, ok thingy to reduce the clutter in your temporary files? That could seriously slow your downloads or break off. Could also be your very own isp. I get 145 on one DSL connection and 75 on another DSL connection.

Yep, I'm a web interface designer so I tried all the tricks of the trade.

I also use Comcast as my ISP and they typically have pretty consistent throughput to all sites. Hell, I even tried downloading other items while requesting an Audible file... the other file came through no issue, the Audible... just sits there.

It may be isolated but it doesn't make sense when work (SBC backbone) and home (Comcast) both bring in the same issues.

I know they have issues with their servers, maybe their Chicago co-loc is just bombarded. Doubt it though... but they never would have sent that email about upgrading their bandwidth if they never had issues initially. I just believe they still haven't worked them out.