Currently listening to Escape From Capitalism by Clara Mattei. Next up I have Getting to Reparations by Dorothy Brown and The Palestine Laboratory by Anthony Loewenstein.
Looking for book recommendations to add to the queue. #books #bookstodon #reading #audiobooks #Librofm
Nach einigen Jahren #degoogle und #unplugTrump bleibt gar nicht mehr viel umzuziehen für #DIDit...
Aber heute hab ich den Schritt gemacht, #Audible zu löschen. Ersetzt habe ich es durch #Bookbeat und insbesondere #LibroFM (https://libro.fm).
Letzteres klingt fast zu schön um wahr zu sein. Und ab 26. Feb sinkt (!) der Preis ihres (optionalen) Abo-Modells.
Manko: Deutschland noch relativ unterrepräsentiert, sowohl bzgl. Hörbücher alsauch bei den unterstützbaren lokalen Buchläden.
I have literally became addicted to #librofm. To the peeps that mentioned this to me and or in general, thank you.
On Payed Online Audiobook Library Subscriptions
Reading Time: 2 minutesFor a long time you could choose between one credit or two credits per month with Audible, and you were limited to that one or two books. With time they increased the price, but they also added plenty of books that were included with the membership. At this point, if you're not looking for a specific book you barely need credits anymore.
An Audible Plan With Temporary Ownership
Audible has a Standard plan. With this plan you spend 9 USD per month and you have access to one new book per month. You are free to read as much, or as little of the book as you desire. If you stop paying for this plan you lose your collection of books.
Storytel
I believe that this plan is designed to compete with Swedish/European Storytel. Storytel too has a subscription model where you do not own books, but rather borrow them. You don't pay for the books though. You pay for reading time. If you want to, you can read a dozen books at once, but once you run out of reading time you must upgrade, or wait for the next month's reading allowance to open up. You can read ebooks and audiobooks.
Spotify
Whilst Spotify is similar to Storytel I would never consider it as an option. For me, 12 hours per month is not worthwhile. I read more than twelve hours per month. I don't need access to the music catalogue either.
Kobo
Kobo has three plans. You can choose just to have e-books, or just audiobooks, or both, and there are no limits to the number of books you can read simultaneously. The choice is limited.
The Limitations
With Audible Standard the limitation is reading just one book in a month, and not owning it if you cancel your subscription. With time you may amass a library, that you never own.
With Storytel you pay an extra franc for going through iOS rather than Android and you can choose between 15, 30 or 45 hours per month. This ranges from 8 CHF per month to 15 CHF per month on Android. You have the freedom of reading dozens of books, but end up with nothing if you cancel the subscription.
The Kobo plan sets no limits on books borrowed, or reading time so it could be seen as the best option. In theory we're dealing with Fnac when using Kobo in Europe.
And Finally - Libro.fm, Books Books Books and Audiobookshelf
Audible was a fantastic site, before it was used by Amazon. As soon as it was bought by Amazon I felt like I was helping a GAFA company, rather than decent human beings. When I buy books I want to support the local economy and small companies that care about my custom.
In the process of writing this post I came across Libro.fm and Books Books Books. Libro.fm is an online book shop that gets you to select a local book shop to support. In this case I am supporting Books Books Books in Lausanne and I feel much better about it. Instead of helping a monopoly I am supporting local people.
What's even better is that I can buy a book, and within a few seconds I can download it and add it to Audiobookshelf and listen to the book via my self-hosted audiobook library.
In a mature market we don't need to use the American first mover anymore. We can use the local current mover instead. The selection might not be as broad, but the local benefit is.
#audible #kobo #library #libroFm #storytel #subscriptions
The #LibroFM iOS app will be getting some quality of life updates for VoiceOver users. The same router actions you find in your library will soon apply to search results. Lots of mini player improvements. I missed one unlabeled button but I will email the devs today about that. It’s the settings icon. #Accessibility
Heart of the Sun Warrior
https://autisticgoblin.ca/2026/01/20/heart-of-the-sun-warrior/
BTW, there's a sale on this audiobook right now:
https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780063335448-an-african-history-of-africa
Daughter of the Moon Goddess
https://autisticgoblin.ca/2026/01/17/daughter-of-the-moon-goddess/
Folks still using Audible, here’s my semi-regular plug that Libro.fm continues to be awesome for me after many years! I had a question late last night and this morning they answered and solved it with their fast and friendly customer support.
Also - they let you download your audio files! You can take them and put them in any other audio device or app you might want to use.
shoutout to @Bfordham I really wanted to put all my #librofm books on my iPod, but the one docker image I found was written as a Kotlin web app. I just don't have time to figure out my errors with it right now. Jumped onto https://codeberg.org/bfordham/librofm and now it looks like all my high fantasy novels are getting pulled down promptly.
A holiday reminder for my fellow audiobook aficionados who don't want to contribute to the monopoly that is Amazon:
You can support small bookshops by setting up a Libro.fm account, and choosing which small bookshop you would like to purchase your audiobooks from.
You can listen on their app, or on the web, or download the audio files DRM free.
For years now, I've been purchasing from a little bookshop right here in my town.
#WeAintBuyingIt from Home Depot, Amazon and Target, and we really need alternatives for the long run.
https://bookshop.org and https://libro.fm have got you covered for books, ebooks and audiobooks AND work to support local bookshops.
What are your favorite alternatives, online or local?
Audible can afford to buy ad space while I'm watching curling, so I would like to take this opportunity to promote Libro.fm
#librofm has better terms of service, more flexible plans that you can pause any time, and DRM free books that you can add to you your own media library to play on any device you want.
Your purchases also support an independent bookstore of your choice. My local bookstore says it helps.
Tom Baker wrote a 4th Doctor novel
Audio book read by Baker and Nicholas Briggs is on sale and DRM free at Libro.FM
Doctor Who: Scratchman
4th Doctor Novel
"Tom Baker himself reads this legendary Doctor Who adventure, a spine-chilling thriller forty years in the making."
Libro.FM sells DRM free audio books and allows you to designate a local bookstore that gets a portion of the sale
https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781787534278-doctor-who-scratchman
#DRMfree #audioBook #LibroFM #localBookstore #TomBaker #DoctorWho #NicholasBriggs
@Fragglemuppet They always have. https://help.audible.com/s/article/learn-about-credits?language=en_US#Two
Try #librofm's expiration-free non-DRM'd audiobooks.
Argh... once again Audible's #Enshittification reaches its tentacles out to degrade the options for everyone else; in this case, #librofm customers not being able to use our credits on new titles until Audible gets its exclusive turn at it for 3 months. @pluralistic it's already time for an addendum to the new book!
