Audiobooks discussion
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Scribd
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Margo
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Sep 11, 2019 03:15AM
Definitely contact them. That can't be right!
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I discontinued my scribd subscription. They falsely advertise unlimited but only allow between three to six books before they make them unavailable.
Whitney wrote: "Update: This month I have finished one audiobook it was 15 hours long. I'm already getting audiobooks taken off of my saved list and it says they will be available to me on the 30th of this month. ..."It's not based on a calendar month, but the day of the month that your account cycles over. Mine is on the 7th (the day I started my account). If you have started a book and passed a certain point that makes it more than a "sample" it counts as a book read so even though you only finished one book, if you had a few others in progress during this calendar cycle, it may be counting those against you.
I couldn't get more than 2 in a month when I tried it and saving the book didn't help, they still disappeared.
Frequently they take titles off my iPhone but then I find that they are still available to me to download....I'm not sure what that's all about.
I don't understand the problems the others are having. I have a list of a couple of hundred 'saved' and probably 40 that are in some state of being read. Maybe a dozen or more actually downloaded. None have ever been removed - to my knowledge... there is a list where you can see what's downloaded and what you might have finished and now want removed. I did just check the app on my iPhone - there is one list of "downloads" that says I have zero downloads BUT when I select a book I am listening to, it says "downloaded" - dunno about that.
My account says "unlimited" reading of everything $8.99 a month
I checked the date on these posts as a long time back you were limited in how many you could have out but they changed that some time ago. And this discussion is new. What am I missing...?
I haven't noticed any of my saved or downloaded books completely disappear, but I have occasionally gone to listen to a book that I have downloaded to my phone and found that suddenly it's no longer downloaded, even after I have been listening to it for some time. It is still listed under my books though. I had thought that was a problem with my phone but it looks like that might be a problem with the app, considering other people's issues.Overall I am very happy with Scribd. I have other sources for my audiobooks, so I haven't tried to see how many they let me listen to in a month, but so far 6 is the most I've gone through. I'm not trying to just read new releases though, perhaps that makes a difference?
Sterling wrote: "I don't understand the problems the others are having. I have a list of a couple of hundred 'saved' and probably 40 that are in some state of being read. Maybe a dozen or more actually downloaded. ..."The issue is that they throttle you, reducing the number of titles you have access to, as the month progresses. Perhaps you are not listening to enough audiobooks on Scribd to see this. They frequently remove books that I have already listened to an hour or more and so it's very frustrating not to be able to finish it. I do prefer new releases so YMMV.
I had the same experience as Janet. After I listened to 4 or 5 in a month then the choices available for me to listen to were very limited - I would say I was probably limited to audio already in the public domain. If you are having a different experience that is great ☺
I ended up getting a free trial of audibles unlimited romances subscription that they have now. So for the last week or so I haven't been using Scribed at all. I did get a notification from Paypal that my account was paid yesterday. Yippie, I can now listen to one and a half books, again. :D
I have no problems with scribd whatsoever. I have never had a book removed. I've had this account a long time so maybe I am grandfathered in somehow. (?)I had a discussion when I started with them that I wanted to believe their "unlimited" was genuinely "unlimited" and they assured me it was. Because it was not when they started. Oh no they said - totally unlimited.
So I dunno - I do use the service, audio and books, and once in a while a document...
it says Read Without Limits
"At no additional cost, you have unlimited* reading of... books, audiobooks, snapshots, documents, magazines (didn't know that was there) and sheet music"
there is an * after unlimited but it doesn't connect to anything.
Janet wrote: "Sterling wrote: "I don't understand the problems the others are having. I have a list of a couple of hundred 'saved' and probably 40 that are in some state of being read. Maybe a dozen or more actu..."i currently have 4 books on my iPhone that I've not finished and they say they are still "downloaded"
The only gripe I've had is looking for a book and they say yeah, we have it, and I login and they do NOT have it. I questioned that and was told sometimes this is "other countries"
Sterling wrote: "Janet wrote: "Sterling wrote: "I don't understand the problems the others are having. I have a list of a couple of hundred 'saved' and probably 40 that are in some state of being read. Maybe a doze..."Try downloading a few books that were just released in the past month and see what happens. I plan my reading and download all my books at the beginning of each month. Already almost all books I would want to read say "Available 11/1/2019"
Sterling wrote: "I have no problems with scribd whatsoever. I have never had a book removed. I've had this account a long time so maybe I am grandfathered in somehow. (?)I had a discussion when I started with the..."
I'm glad to hear you don't have these problems. That's as it should be.
Janet wrote: "Sterling wrote: "Janet wrote: "Sterling wrote: "I don't understand the problems the others are having. I have a list of a couple of hundred 'saved' and probably 40 that are in some state of being r..."ok - I'll try that and see. Maybe the problem is in brand new books. Now sure how many of mine are new.
If the throttling is only brand new books, does anyone have any evidence as to how old a book has to be for it not to be throttled? I would guess there isn't a fixed time threshold and it will instead be a reflection of heaviness of demand amongst Scribd members. For instance, I would guess that most of Margaret Atwood's novels from the 80s will not be throttled, but perhaps The Handmaid's Tale currently is, because lots of people will be reading (or rereading) it in preparation for reading the newly-released sequel.
However, I suspect there will be a general tendency that few books stay in high demand for more than, say, 12 months after release (absent special circumstances such as TV adaptation). Anyone want to do some experiments? If you are being throttled for October, pick some books released 6, 12, 18, 24 months ago that were best sellers and see if there's a pattern about which are included in the throttling.
I've never been throttled - any titles you suggest we try?
IvanOpinion wrote: "If the throttling is only brand new books, does anyone have any evidence as to how old a book has to be for it not to be throttled?..."I'm throttled right now, so I looked around. From prior experience, I have noticed there are different levels to the limitations. This past month, I've listened to 4 books and most of the recent popular titles I have in my saved list are restricted until my new month starts.
I took a look around and found: Nora Roberts has most newer books restricted and a few older ones as did Danielle Steel. The older restricted ones had a different publisher from the ones I could access. All of J. R. Ward's books were restricted to me. Most Sherrilyn Kenyon are restricted except for the few titles from Brillance Audio.
Stephen King, all but those Brillance Audio are restricted.
John Sandford, none available to me, even the first Prey book.
I know there have been a couple months where I was mostly restricted and if I listened to a one or two more main stream releases that were still available to me, I was then restricted to mainly audiobooks in the public domain from LibriVox Audio and I wasn't interested in any of those; I didn't look around to see if any non-fiction or such were available.
From what I understand, some of it depends on the publisher and the payment arrangement Scribd has with them. Your chances of restriction really depends on your reading habits and genre as well as the audiobook publisher.
I know most of the problem we've discussed here is the limiting of access to audiobooks, but I had a different problem this past month. I had several audios available from my library therefore I had not maxed out my Scribd audios. Next month, I might not be so lucky and max out early so I'm doing a little experiment.I noticed that once I listen to a book (or get past the point where it is counted as read), the book stays in my library and is available even if I'm throttled.
I was not yet restricted in audios, and I know my Scribd month starts on the 7th so I let the book I plan to start later this week, run on my computer in the background with the sound off while I was working. Then I started a 2nd one that I will listen to afterward. Having listened to 2 already this month, I was then throttled. I still have a few I am interested in available, so I'm going to do the same thing until there are none I want. This way I won't feel like I'm losing some of my available reads this month, and I expect those to be available to carry me through the restricted times.
I do not understand throttling. Please explain as if I were 5. I have never had any book refused to me. When you are throttled, what does it look like, what are you told? Be specific please."Stephen King, all but those Brillance Audio are restricted. "
"John Sandford, none available to me, even the first Prey book."
I have access to ALL Stephen King books. I looked up the latest Sandford "Neon Prey" and there it is - I can listen, save for later, download/whatever
A big long list of A. J. Ward says "Included in your membership!
at no additional cost"
I keenly remember their restrictions in the early days and refused to do business with them. When they changed the rules, I really pushed to get the legal "unlimited" defined and as near as I can tell, my audiobooks and e-books are unlimited.
Once in a while if I am not logged in, I will see a book I want and when I login it is not there, says 'unavailable' and Scribd says that's a country by country thing.
I am confused.
When I have reached my limit that Scribd determines based on some formula, I will see audiobooks when I search, but they have a banner on top of them that says Available Soon (similar that that Unavailable you see if you are not logged in). If I click on the book to read the description, it shows me that book page and has Available on whatever date my month renews. If I save them to my library by clicking on that little ribbon, when I look at my Saved list, there's a section that says Available Soon and it has the date that I can access items on that list.
Sterling wrote: "I do not understand throttling. Please explain as if I were 5. I have never had any book refused to me. When you are throttled, what does it look like, what are you told? Be specific please...."Lucky for you. Your reading habits are exactly what Scribd wants. They want to collect our monthly fee for "unlimited" and act like there are no restrictions or that the restrictions are minor. Granted, there are some books always available to allow them to say unlimited, but the choices may not interest you. I know that and am willing to pay my fee even if I get throttled because the # I can listen to are enough for me.
Dawn wrote: "I know most of the problem we've discussed here is the limiting of access to audiobooks, but I had a different problem this past month. I had several audios available from my library therefore I ha..."It seems to me that when they restrict, they start with the big publishers, popular authors, and new releases first. Are you saying that you are going to purposefully listen to books that aren't that popular in hopes that when you have been restricted, the titles you actually want to listen to will still be available to you? If so, I don't understand it, but let me know if it works.
Whitney,I can't actually actively listen to a book right now and I haven't used up all my allowable books for the month. I can, however, let a book play on silent in my app. It should count as a book for this month and be available for me to actively listen to in the future without using up one of my "allotted" reads in the future month.
Dawn wrote: "When I have reached my limit that Scribd determines based on some formula, I will see audiobooks when I search, but they have a banner on top of them that says Available Soon (similar that that Una..."When I have seen that "available soon" it is when a book is not actually out - at least that's my understanding. I have seen that very rarely though.
Dawn wrote: "Whitney,I can't actually actively listen to a book right now and I haven't used up all my allowable books for the month. I can, however, let a book play on silent in my app. It should count as a ..."
OK I just so full of curiosity about this - what does your agreement with them say? Does it say you have "UNLIMITED' audiobooks and e-books?
Dawn wrote: "Whitney,I can't actually actively listen to a book right now and I haven't used up all my allowable books for the month. I can, however, let a book play on silent in my app. It should count as a ..."
"without using up one of my "allotted" reads in the future month."
That's the word I am not understanding "allotted" - do they actually SAY you are allotted 5 or 10 or 20 books a month?
Sterling wrote: "Dawn wrote: ""without using up one of my "allotted" reads in the future month."That's the word I am not understanding "allotted" - do they actually SAY you are allotted 5 or 10 or 20 books a month? ..."
No, they don't say any specific number, but there are restrictions on your available books. It's a different # of books depending on our reading habits. I have found that with my reading habits after 4 books, my options are limited. After a couple more books from that limited list, my choices have been limited even further at which point there usually isn't anything I want to listen to. There's still plenty available, but nothing that interests me. Also, once I have listened to a book past a certain point, it becomes part of my library that's available anytime; thereby allowing me unlimited listening if I'm willing to reread a book.
For a lot of people the term unlimited is interpreted to mean, no limitations of any kind on any title. Scribd uses the term unlimited to mean there's always something available regardless of whether you would like to listen to it.
Yes, I think if you look farther up in this thread you will see more descriptions of what happened. My experience was about a year ago. I wanted to listen to the Longmire mystery series. I was on the earlier ones, so they aren't new, but could be popular. I put some in my "wish list" or whatever it's called there, but within a week they went away and when I tried to get them, the message said they would be available at the end of my monthly renewal period. The 2nd book I chose was a new one, but I didn't care for it and stopped halfway through. I didn't try contacting them for an "exchange" like you can at Audible, so maybe that would have been possible. When I contacted them about the "unlimited" claim, I got a long email "explaining" their policy, which didn't really explain it. Basically, it is unlimited just like your public library is unlimited for audiobooks. You can have a choice of whatever is available, but you may have to wait. If you want something right now, you have to take what they are offering.
If this is to preserve a decent royalty for authors, I am not opposed to it. But I feel it's false advertising. (I suppose if they really gave unlimited access, they would be like MoviePass, which just closed up because they couldn't make any money.) Another option for heavy listeners would be to charge more per month for a truly unlimited option. I used to pay 35.00 a month back in 2005 or so for cassettes shipped to me from Recorded Books. They were like the old Netflix model. I started with 3 books and as I shipped one back, I would get a new one from my wishlist. Sometimes I didn't get my first choice right away because they were physical cassettes and there were only a certain number of them.
Here's something interesting. I have quite a few audiobooks in various stages of being read....14 to be exact. I noticed tonight that those are the only ones available to me...yup, not even audiobooks in the public domain are available. I can download quite a few ebooks but no audiobooks....so much for "unlimited". What if I was visually impaired? I also wonder what would happen if I marked some of them as "finished". I'll be doing that in the next day or so.
Dawn wrote: "Sterling wrote: "Dawn wrote: ""without using up one of my "allotted" reads in the future month."That's the word I am not understanding "allotted" - do they actually SAY you are allotted 5 or 10 o..."
"Scribd uses the term unlimited to mean there's always something available regardless of whether you would like to listen to it."
Well maybe that is the key but they usually have what I am looking for. I frequently go after new books by favorite authors and I'll check what is new on audible and then see if Scribd has it and mostly they do and I get it. I guess I must be lucky. I hope I don't run into these problems.
Janet wrote: "Here's something interesting. I have quite a few audiobooks in various stages of being read....14 to be exact. I noticed tonight that those are the only ones available to me...yup, not even audiobo..."ok - to be sure. You have 14 books in various stages of being read and now NOTHING in Scribd audio is available? Nothing? What does it say when you click on a book? Just "not available" on all of them?
Janet wrote: "Here's something interesting. I have quite a few audiobooks in various stages of being read....14 to be exact. I noticed tonight that those are the only ones available to me...yup, not even audiobo..."I always mark mine as finished right away and it hasn't increased available options for me. Finished books as well as books that I have passed the "sample" point seem to always be available to me
One time before I was limited down to only what appeared to be from LibriVox Audio. Yesterday, in my experiment trying to get maxed out for the month, I got to where I was only seeing LibriVox Audio and Brillance Audio books. My month reset today, so I can't see if I would get restricted down even more.
I usually paid for the 12 audible credits upfront. I'll have to do the math and see how much money I actually saved and if I managed to listen to more audiobooks with scribed versus audible. I would actually pay 14 dollars for more unlimitedness from scribd. In fact, that would make them very competitive and allow them to pay the authors and publishers more for more access if that's the issue.
Sterling wrote: ok - to be sure. You have 14 books in various stages of being read and now NOTHING in Scribd audio is available? Nothing? What does it say when you click on a book? Just "not available" on all of them? i>If I click on Audiobooks it shows 2 lines, the first says "Audiobooks You've Saved"....this is the 14. The second line says "Recommended Interests" and shows categories labeled "Fiction", "Contemporary Fiction", "Mystery, Thriller, Crime" and "Historical Fiction". When I click on those it takes me to various sub-categories and when I click on those it says "No books found". Like I said I still have access to some e-books though but no additional audio over the 14 I already have. I think I'm being punished....lol.
These are the books I have if you want to try to get throttled.The Gifted School
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Gender and Our Brains
The Honey Bus
If You Want to Make God Laugh
Inland
Disappearing Earth
Cantoras
Black Light
The Women of Copper Country
The Swallows
Missing Presumed
Lady in the Lake
Chances Are
Janet wrote: "Sterling wrote: ok - to be sure. You have 14 books in various stages of being read and now NOTHING in Scribd audio is available? Nothing? What does it say when you click on a book? Just "not availa..."That is just weird. I must be in some Holy space as I never see anything that says "no". Sometimes they don't have a book but that's rare and most times that's a book that the library don't have either and is only on amazon for sale.
Whitney wrote: "I usually paid for the 12 audible credits upfront. I'll have to do the math and see how much money I actually saved and if I managed to listen to more audiobooks with scribed versus audible. I woul..."Interesting - you pay for a full year on audible up front? I don't think I have seen that offered. Do you save with a year paid in advance? How much do you pay for your Scribd membership?
When I click on 'audiobooks' in the left column, there is a vertical list shows up on the middle of the right side of a couple of hundred audiobooks I've saved, the next line says 'best sellers', then books, audiobooks, snapshots, magazines, documents, music.If it is showing audiobooks I've saved, in a horizontal line, then under that 'Audiobooks Recommended For You' and then 'similar to'
When I get to 'Recommended for You' and lots of book lists open and nothing under that says no...
Sterling wrote: "Whitney wrote: "I usually paid for the 12 audible credits upfront. I'll have to do the math and see how much money I actually saved and if I managed to listen to more audiobooks with scribed versus..."It's usually 149.95 for 12 credits at once. A few months ago, they had a special for 119.95 which I took. I never did this before. I was paying 14.95 per month and then suspending my account for 3 months each year (which you can do) because with all the sales, I have way more books than I can keep up with. So I was paying 134.55 for 9 books, not really saving per book. It was just easier to pay monthly. However, now that I have extra credits, I have been able to take advantage of 2-for-1 sales and, Buy x number of books and get a credit offers. So I might renew yearly, even at the higher rate.
I think Scribd is 9.95 a month, which is not a bad deal for 2 books that you want. I just didn't like their sneaky policy and I don't prefer using an app.
Sterling wrote: "When I click on 'audiobooks' in the left column, there is a vertical list shows up on the middle of the right side of a couple of hundred audiobooks I've saved, the next line says 'best sellers', t..."How many books do you have that you have downloaded but not finished?
Sterling wrote: "Whitney wrote: "I usually paid for the 12 audible credits upfront. I'll have to do the math and see how much money I actually saved and if I managed to listen to more audiobooks with scribed versus..."I did. However, this year I didn't renew it. For me, it worked because if I had a lot of time I could get books that I wanted anytime without having to wait for my credits for the month.
So last night I took a look. I have passed the 12 auidobooks mark and so far this year I've spent about 90 dollars. By the end of the year I'd have spent 107.88 and will probably have listened to 20+ audiobooks via scribd. So less than 6 dollars per audiobook. I'd say it's worth it even when we get throttled, but I really wish they'd either change their advertising or make it REALLY unlimited and charge us a bit more. update: I've been listening to some pretty popular audiobooks. I'm on my 3rd book this month. I will keep an eye out to see if books start to disappear as usual.
Browsing on Scribd was also difficult compared to Audible. It's fine if you know what you want, but especially when I was a newer listener, Audible pointed me to a lot of great books I wouldn't have thought of.
Robin wrote: "Browsing on Scribd was also difficult compared to Audible. It's fine if you know what you want, but especially when I was a newer listener, Audible pointed me to a lot of great books I wouldn't hav..."I've noticed that they've been trying to get better at that. They have some lists for each month. There is this " What Are you In the Mood For?" section at the bottom of the home page.
An update after using Scribd for a year now! I've spent $98.89 (11 months $8.99 + 1 month $0.00)
I've listened to 49 audiobooks = $2.02/audiobook :)
For the year ahead it will be about $3/audiobook or less ($107.88 / year and listening to a minimum 3/month)
I have a good routine with it now. I typically am able to listen to 3 popular/mainstream audiobooks in a month before my selection is reduced. Occasionally I'll listen to a 4th or 5th book that's still available in the reduced selection, I consider that a bonus. Recently I've seen more and more audio titles I'm interested in still available in the reduced selection, and there's always a decent selection of ebook titles still available.
I applaud that Scribd is attempting to make this type of model work, to disrupt the industry a bit to keep it competitive, and provide excellent value! At first I too found it frustrating that I didn't understand their patterns of when/how they restricted their list of titles, but now I just go with it - I pick my 3 titles the beginning of each month, download them, and listen to them early in the month!
The combination of my library, Scribd, and Audible, and I'm a very happy and grateful listener these days, listening to 15+ titles every month!
I'm running an experiment with Scribd this month.At the beginning of the month (my membership rolls over on the 2nd of each month), I downloaded more than 60 audiobooks to my phone. Yes, you can download as many as you like of whatever you like -- they only throttle your **listening**, not your downloads. Many of these books are 2019 releases, none are public domain. Almost all are sff, a couple are mysteries.
Then I turned off wifi and cellular access to the app.
I've listened to eight books from Scribd so far this month alone, and I'm currently working on a ninth. If I don't turn off wifi/cell, I usually get about three before I'm throttled.
Of course, I don't know whether they'll retaliate against me next month. But so far, so good!
My experience was pretty much the same as Annes, and I agree that it affordable and good conpetition to audible and others. I like the model and would definatly use it IF I didn't have such a huge audible backlog.@Contrarius - I'm glad that you have found a way to make the system work for you :-) I have tried doing it that way once but it means that you can't connect to WiFi on the device or the books get taken back. It is an awful lot of effort to get a few extra. I'm interested that you download 60 books - how many do you listen in the month? When to go online to get more do they take any back from you?
Margo wrote: "I have tried doing it that way once but it means that you can't connect to WiFi on the device or the books get taken back.”Right. That’s why I downloaded a whole bunch at once.
Fortunately, these days it doesn’t matter so much if you use cell data for most stuff on your phone instead of wifi (unlimited cell data is included in my plan), so it doesn’t hurt the other things I use the phone for if I leave wifi turned off.
“ I'm interested that you download 60 books - how many do you listen in the month?”>
Overall, I listen to roughly 100 books a year. But that’s all sources. I downloaded all those books as a trial as much as anything.
“When to go online to get more do they take any back from you? "
This is the first time I’ve tried it seriously, so I don’t know yet what the consequences will be. Last time I made a half-hearted try, I think I had to go back and download the unread books again. This time I’m going to try to not reconnect until I’ve read all of the downloaded books I’m interested in, or until there are more new books that I’m dying to read. Then we’ll see what happens!
It pays to have a phone with lots of storage space!
Sorry, I’m on my phone and it’s not letting me edit to correct all those italics!
Audiobooks
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Orchard (other topics)
The Orchard (other topics)
