What is Audible and how does it work ? These are two questions that many people often ask themselves. Audible is one of Amazon's many book-related services that all readers love. However, it can be a bit tricky to figure out what it is and above all how to use this audiobook service..
What is Audible and how does it work?
Amazon Audible is one of the largest audiobook subscription services in the world. It has almost half a million books available on its platform. It is an Amazon service that allows access to a huge number of audiobooks at an extremely affordable price.
How does Audible work? In order to use this service it is necessary to have an Amazon account and register with Audible, we have the option of accessing a monthly or annual subscription. There are several plans, but in all of them we will have access to listen to a wide variety of audiobooks. Depending on the plan we have, we can use one or two Audible credits to purchase books on sale..
Credits are a kind of currency that we can use to buy an audiobook. One credit equals one audiobook, regardless of the off-shelf cost of the book. For example, let's pretend that a Lord of the Rings book is priced at $29.99. But with Audible credit we can purchase it for $15.00 or less, this will depend on your membership.
Every month we have a subscription, we will earn new credits. Best of all, it is not necessary to buy a new book every time we have a credit, since these are cumulative. This means that they will never be removed from our account if we choose not to spend them. Even if we want to cancel the subscription, the credits will not be taken from us and we will be able to use them..
Something that we must clarify before continuing is that the cheapest plan does not give away credits. What we can do is borrow books from the library to listen to them while we keep the subscription active.
What is the price of a subscription on Audible?
The first thing we should take into account is how many books we want to listen to each month, also if we want to own or simply borrow them, pay a monthly or yearly subscription, etc.
The cheapest plan is $7.95 per month and we will not have credits to buy audiobooks, although we will have access to a library of selected audiobooks, Audible Originals, podcasts and various other things.
We also have the option to subscribe to Audible Plus, where we can borrow books, but also buy audiobooks, even those that are not in the library. There are four plans that include credits: Audible Premium Plus, Audible Premium Plus (2 credits), annual Audible Premium Plus (12 credits) and Audible Premium Plus (24 credits).
What is the most requested? Audible Premium Plus, this is a monthly subscription that has a very affordable price of $14.95 and provides us with 1 monthly credit. Another very interesting option is the Premium Plus of 2 credits, we will have to pay $22.95 per month, but we will have 2 credits available. If we listen to several audiobooks monthly, this is a great plan.
| AudiblePlus | $7.95 per month | no credits |
| Audible Premium Plus | $14.95 per month | 1 credit per month |
| Audible Premium Plus – 2 credits | $22.95 per month | 2 credits per month |
| Audible Premium Plus Annual – 12 credits | $149.50 per year | 12 credits per year |
| Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 credits | $229.50 per year | 24 credits per year |
How to use Audible
On our computer, we will have to go to Audible and choose the "Browse" tab at the top of the web.
Now we will be able to browse different categories and collections. Another option would be to use the search option found in the top right bar. When we see a book we like, we can add it to the cart.
We also have the possibility of using the application available for iOS and Android . To navigate the app, we just have to look for the shopping cart icon and click on it to explore the different categories.
Although another option would be to search for the books directly from the official Amazon.com website and it will give us the option to buy it with credits.
How to use the credits
After finding the book we are looking for, we will have to press "Add to cart", we can enter our cart and see all the books we chose.
Here it is very simple, instead of choosing to pay by cash, we are going to select the option that says "Credit" and that's it.
Use audiobooks included in Audible Plus
Another option is to borrow the books and listen to as many as we want without having to buy any. All we have to do is look for those audiobooks that have an orange label that says "Included". When we find it, we can borrow it and listen to it “for free”, without using credits. As we are "borrowing" it, it will only be available to listen as long as we keep our subscription active.
Download a book from Audible
Only the books that we have bought will be the ones that we can download. We will look for the book in the library and we can see that all the books we own will open; here we have the option to “Listen now”.
However, we also have the possibility to download the application available for all operating systems. We can use the application offline by clicking on the three dots next to the title we have and selecting "Download". In this way we can listen to the audiobook without the need for an internet connection.
Now you know what Audible is and how it works, it's time to jump in and enjoy hundreds of audiobooks online.