Scribd

[Janet]

I used to be a member but discontinued when they started limiting to one audiobook a month. Now I see they have changed back to "unlimited". I'm hoping someone who is a current member will weigh in here and answer my questions.

[Paris (kerbytejas)]

I just re-upped my membership in scribd - I left over a year ago. They gave you a 30 day trial before the first bill

so far it seems ok

[L J]

I'm not a member at this time. I have plenty to read right now without Scribd. I know people with memberships but none are in it primarily for the audiobooks. This article, https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/08/scr..., helped me make my decision to wait for more details on limits.

Found this, https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho..., had more info on limits than anywhere else including Scribd.

[Janet]

L J wrote: "I'm not a member at this time. I have plenty to read right now without Scribd. I know people with memberships but none are in it primarily for the audiobooks. This article, https://techcrunch.com/2..."

Thanks LJ. I think i'll wait a while to see how limited it is. Even at 4 books a month, it's cheaper than Audible although the books are not yours. Of course it can be argued that Audible books are not actually ours either.

[L J]

Janet wrote: "L J wrote: "I'm not a member at this time. I have plenty to read right now without Scribd. I know people with memberships but none are in it primarily for the audiobooks. This article, https://tech..."

Unlimited sounded good but the more I checked the less worthwhile it seemed especially if it's limited after 4 books. If I'm working and listening that's one week.
You might want to check the discussion about Overdrive at other libraries. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Janet]

L J wrote: "Janet wrote: "L J wrote: "I'm not a member at this time. I have plenty to read right now without Scribd. I know people with memberships but none are in it primarily for the audiobooks. This article..."

I have Overdrive at my library and I use it often but the holds lists are usually long and everything I request seems to come at the same time. Scribd seems a little more controllable.

[L J]

Part of the reason I like Metro Library System is it gives me access to 6 hoopla books per month. I read the older ones in series from library then can often get the newest one from hoopla thus avoiding the wait for library copy.

[Dee]

i really wish hoopla would offer more than 6 books a month...i wonder if that is a package that libraries choose?

[Faith]

Dee wrote: "i really wish hoopla would offer more than 6 books a month...i wonder if that is a package that libraries choose?"

I think libraries have to limit the number because they have to pay for each borrow, as opposed to the Overdrive model where the library pays only once upfront.

[Dee]

i'd happily pay a small fee for more borrows from my library :)

[Mara]

It depends on what the library can afford in how many books the can afford.

I am lucky that San Francisco Public Library & Sacramento allows patrons to get 20 books per month.

San Francisco Public Library allows patrons to get 20 books per month from HOOPLA and AXIS 360.

[L J]

Faith wrote: "I think libraries have to limit the number because they have to pay f..."

Libraries don't always get Overdrive books forever. Publishers can limit number of check outs based on how long/how many reads it would take for physical copy to be worn out and need replacement. If there are requests my local library is good about buying "replacement copy" of Overdrive book that is older one in continuing series.

[Susanne]

I've been using Scribd for a couple months now, and the "limit" seems to affect the books you can find. If you already have it "saved", it's always available...at least it has been for me.

In May, I listened to 11 books, and so far in April I've only listened to five, but I'm alternating between audible (huge back log), Libby (library books), and Scribd as well as my huge TBR pile on my kindle plus the ton of books I own that I need to read.

But, I have just over 300 books in my "saved" list. I added three more in the past week, and they are showing as "available on 5/9/18" when my subscription renews.

So while I've seen the effects of the limit, It doesn't really impact me since I have access to 300 books I want to read/listen to.

[Darlene]

Okay, talk to me about Scribd! I've been an Audible customer for many years and have a sizeable library. I also make use of my library's Overdrive and borrow from that. The unlimited access of Scribd appeals to me, plus the monthly rate is cheaper than what I'm paying with Audible which works out to about CDN$20 with the exchange rate. I'm not the type of person that re-reads books, so not owning titles on Scribd doesn't really matter to me. For me, I find that Scribd offers great selection for what I'm interested in. There are many lengthy book series that are available on Scribd that I'd love to start.

Since I just received my new Audible credit, I am planning to wait until just before the next credit arrives to put my account on hold and then try the Scribd free trial. I'd love to hear from anyone else that has tried Scribd and their opinion as to how they like it versus Audible.

[Paris (kerbytejas)]

Darlene wrote: "Okay, talk to me about Scribd! I've been an Audible customer for many years and have a sizeable library. I also make use of my library's Overdrive and borrow from that. The unlimited access of Scri..."

with audible - the books are yours (so to speak) with scribd you are borrowing and returning the books at some point. I re-upped with scribd when they changed to this new format ( i had been with them before) and I really like it - its saved me $$ eah monh that would have gone to audible.

I also use overdrive at 6 libraries throughout the us for audio bokks an ebooks.

in fact the year I was gone from scribd - they even kept my old "save to read later" list - so I still had those books marked and ready to listen to

try scribd and see what you think - only you can make this decision

[Darlene]

Paris (kerbytejas) wrote: "Darlene wrote: "Okay, talk to me about Scribd! I've been an Audible customer for many years and have a sizeable library. I also make use of my library's Overdrive and borrow from that. The unlimite..."

Thanks, Paris. I'm definitely going to try the Scribd free trial and then see. I do enjoy binging on a book series and like the idea that I wouldn't have to wait for each month's credit as I do with Audible to purchase the next book in a series that I'm enjoying.

[Bookish Trina]

Hello Everyone:

My name is Trina and I'm new to the group. I'm happy to see a chat about Scribd. I'm in love with Scribd! Unlimited audiobooks (including many new releases for $9 a month) rocks. I was able to get rid of over 50% of my Audible and Overdrive wish list once I joined. I even cancelled some of my library holds because the books were on Scribd. I've been a Audible user for years with over 1300 audiobooks on Audible but now that I have Scribd, I've let my credits stack until there is an audiobook that I can only get on Audible.

Looking forward to chatting with you guys in the future:-)

[Robin P]

Do you have to stream the books from Scribd? That is the one thing that would make a difference to me as I like to listen on a small iPod, which isn't a "smart" device. I also see they are strict that you can't share any books. On Audible you can download to numerous devices, so I keep encouraging my family members to use my library. (They rarely do, but I keep trying to convert them.)

[Bookish Trina]

You can stream them and download them as well. Not sure about the compatibility with an iPod but I have downloaded books to my iPhone and iPad via the app. I've also downloaded them to my computer. Hope that helps:-)

[Janet]

I have heard that Scribd is not truly unlimited so that after you’ve chosen maybe 3 audiobooks you might have to wait till your next month for certain choices particularly more popular newer releases. This is hearsay, not sure exactly how it works in practice.

[Robin P]

Trina wrote: "You can stream them and download them as well. Not sure about the compatibility with an iPod but I have downloaded books to my iPhone and iPad via the app. I've also downloaded them to my computer...."

That works, I download to my computer and then put them onto the iPod. I also saw comments about the "unlimited" offer.

Back in the days of cassettes, I used to get them from Recorded Books. It was one price (about 35.00 a month) and it was truly unlimited. It was like the original Netflix, you would have a queue and as you sent back the books, you got new ones. It was a great deal, as it could cost $15-25 a book just to rent individually and much more to buy. You did have to wait sometimes for popular books.

The Audible Romance package is "unlimited", that is you pay one price and you can listen by streaming to as many as you want - within the books they have chosen for it. If there was something like that for more general books, I might go for it.

[Bookish Trina]

Robin wrote: "Trina wrote: "You can stream them and download them as well. Not sure about the compatibility with an iPod but I have downloaded books to my iPhone and iPad via the app. I've also downloaded them t..."

Robin I remember that. Recorded Books ROCKED:-)

I absolutely love Scribd, I just downloaded quite a few new releases, released this week, that were included in the membership. $9 a month is such a deal. I still have my Audible membership because....well Audible rocks too but sometimes I don't want to own a book just listen to it. So between Kindle Unlimited (read and listen option), Audible, Scribd and OverDrive (library) I'm covered.

Let me know what you think about Scribd after you have a chance to try it.

Happy listening my friend!

[Robin P]

I'm really tempted. I have over 100 audiobooks from Audible not yet listened to, but I agree, I don't need to own them. I will check it out. I am retiring from work on Oct 3, so I hope I will have a lot more time to listen!

Glad to know someone else remembers Recorded Books. Way back in the 80's when I first got hooked on audio, I used to get my books from the library. I soon learned that Recorded Books had the best quality of narrators and no abridgments. Early on, lots of audiobooks from other companies were abridged, on the theory that people who listened to them were doing it because they didn't really like to read and were just trying to save time! Thank goodness that has mostly changed. I was with RB up till 2011 when they stopped using cassettes. I never liked CDs, too bulky and you can't easily move from one device to another and keep your place. When I called to cancel with RB, they recommended Audible as a place to get the narrators I liked.

[Robin P]

OK, I signed up for the free trial at Scribd. It seems you can download through an app, so I just used my phone & dug out a wireless speaker to use around the house. I saved several books, though I didn't download them, and a few days later, they are gone. When I try to get one again, it says it won't be available till Sep 25, even though the book came out last year. And a couple others just can't be found at all. So I wonder if I'm being restricted already. With the long weekend I did go through a whole book in one day. I also noticed that a book that shows as 8 hours on Audible is only 4 hours on Scribd, so it must be abridged, which is unacceptable.

So it seems that Scribd is unlimited in the same way that the library services are. You can have as much as you want of what happens to be available, you just can't have everything you want at any given moment. There is nothing wrong with that, but I may not go on to the paid membership if that is the case. I do have something like 100 books from Audible that I haven't listened to yet!

[Karen]

Robin wrote: "I'm really tempted. I have over 100 audiobooks from Audible not yet listened to, but I agree, I don't need to own them. I will check it out. I am retiring from work on Oct 3, so I hope I will have ..."
Recorded Books lives on as RB Digital, most libraries still have it as well as Overdrive. The only downside is you have to listen on their app, can't download to MP3 players anymore. With the DRM issue, they stopped allowing WMA files.
I just tried it recently since I upgraded my phone and it works well with bluetooth headphones I don't have to carry the phone around with me, can go upstairs or down to the laundry room without any loss of sound.

[Dawn]

It appears Scribd is funneling us down after listening to 2 books. In the past I was able to listening to audiobooks I had in my saved list but couldn't add new ones. This month, after listening to my 2nd book, I found that the next book I wanted was in my saved list, but is being restricted until my new month starts.

I'll try downloading a few to see how it restricts things if I have downloaded them.

[Robin P]

I hadn't thought of it that way, the date they told me the book would be available must be 30 days after I started. 2 books a month of my choosing for 8.95 is still good but I might wait till I have gone through more of my backlog before having a paid membership. I did send a query to Scribd about my experience to see what they say.

The experience of browsing on Scribd is less helpful than on Audible. I couldn't figure out how to see reviews and there isn't an easy way to see a series in order. There also isn't a way to have a Wish List if they remove books from the Saved status.

[Dawn]

@Robin, Scribd's search function is terrible. For the last few days I've been trying to look at books by category and that page isn't pulling anything up for me.

For the most part things in my saved list aren't removed unless the book is removed from Scribd's services. It's just that now they are restricting access to the preview only if you've used more than your monthly "allowance"

[Laura]

I subscribe to Scrb'd [about 6 months]. I have always noticed that sometimes I would save books and Scrb'd would put holds on them before releasing them to my list -- in essence limiting their "unlimited" books promise.
However, I have never had them take books from my list to limit them until just a few days ago. I had a few books which were released to me on 8/25. I received an email from Scrib'd letting me know the books were available. By 8/27, not only were these newly released books pulled from my list and placed on hold, several books which I had been in my list for a while were also pulled and placed on hold. I tried to find out what happened and found this posting on the Scrb'd website and thought you might be interested. Interesting that Scrb'd didn't even bother notifying that they were planning on doing this, they just did it -- like thieves in the night. Here's the link:
https://support.scribd.com/hc/en-us/a...

I totally agree with that search function is terrible. Sometimes I find that if I am searching for a book, the book won't initially appear until I search under the author's name -- and then the book will appear indicating that it is only available to me after a certain date. Very odd set up.

[Robin P]

I read that FAQ but it didn't really answer the question. It is perfectly fine if they are offering 2 audiobooks a month, plus all the ebooks, magazines, etc. which I'm not interested in. But they should just say that. Or that you can only "save" 2 books a month and after that you can choose from what else is available. I haven't had a response yet but will let you know.

I feel like Audible provides such a great shopping experience, browsing and finding recommendations and lots of reviews (although I wish they would bring back the option to follow people). I've discovered a lot of great books on Audible that I wouldn't have thought of myself, such as The Martian.

[Robin P]

Here's the (non)answer I got from Scribd

Brittani P. (Support Desk)
Sep 5, 3:14 PM PDT

Hi there Robin,

Thank you so much for reaching out to us!

I can assure you that your monthly subscription does entitle you to access an unlimited number of books and audiobooks during the subscription period. While we strive to provide the most comprehensive catalog to all of our members, we can’t always guarantee the immediate availability of a specific title.

I can guarantee you that we will never say “That’s it, no more for you!“, however the books that you are trying to access are likely very popular, and because of our agreements with our publishers, we have to adjust the availability when necessary so that our publishers are still benefiting from their partnership with us.

We are making every effort to continuously improve our relationships with our publishing partners by showcasing the value of Scribd. With that said, we also have to adhere to any current limitations and restrictions placed upon us by our content providers. The availability date for titles with this banner is accurate, and this content will be fully accessible to you on the listed date. In the meantime, we hope that the titles currently fully available to you on the platform will enable you to continue enjoying Scribd!

For more information on exploring our library for books that are readily available for you to enjoy right away, please review the 'Exploring for Content' section of our support article, "Searching and Exploring Scribd's Library," and of course let me know if you have any questions about browsing our immediately available content!

Again, I’m sorry for the inconvenience you are experiencing with these titles, and hope this clarifies your experience. If you have any additional questions, please let me know.

[Janet]

This sounds like a variation of “you can’t always get what you want but you’ll get what you need”...lol.

[Dawn]

I take issue with
I can guarantee you that we will never say “That’s it, no more for you!“, however the books that you are trying to access are likely very popular.

I wonder what the definition of very popular is. I do not listen to books in a mainstream genre and I'm pretty sure all audiobooks I looked at were curtailed until my next month's anniversary date. I'm going to have to pay close attention this month after I listen to 2 books to see what happens. My anniversary date is today so my month is reset.

I see in that notice posted above they realized the loop hole that saving a book to your lists could allow unlimited access to the book or audiobook. (The bug that we fixed bypassed the restrictions that appeared elsewhere in our service when a book or audiobook was added to your saved titles list.)

[Dawn]

Janet wrote: "This sounds like a variation of “you can’t always get what you want but you’ll get what you need”...lol."

I think it's more of a you can only get what we can afford to give you even though we offered you an "unlimited" service.

It's a great concept of unlimited access, but they really hope you don't use it too much. Kind of like what Movie Pass holders are experiencing right now.

[Janet]

I wonder whether they have to pay full fee if you start an audio but don't finish it. If they had some way of tracking or limiting that kind of usage, it might work better for everyone.

[Robin P]

In browsing the site again , LOTS of the books are abridged and I don't see a clear marking that indicates that. There is no way a novel is 1-2 hours long!

It could be that Scribd is a great deal for the ebook & magazine side, but I don't need more to read that way. I do have some ebooks but I always forget I have them, and I am so old school that I still pay for a physical newspaper every day!

[L J]

So it hasn't changed for the better since I knew people who had Scribd and looked into it and decided against doing it. If anything it seems to be worse since now it's only 2 instead of 4 before restrictions hit and Wish List books no longer have any kind of exemption.
Is it still 8.99 per month? That's 107.88 per year. Last time I checked for that I could get ecards to 2 or 3 more libraries.

[Robin P]

Yes, 8.99 a month. If I didn't have so much of a backlog, it could still be worth it for 1 or 2 books a month, but the abridged thing bothered me more also. Plus I have to listen on my phone, which isn't my preference. So I'll be canceling.

[Contrarius]

I’m trying out Scribd right now. I initially downloaded 23 books to my phone (iphone with lots of memory!), and saved many more than that. I checked several of the downloaded books, and every one I checked was unabridged (same length as on Audible). These are all science fiction and fantasy.

I listened to three of the books — no problem. I then downloaded an additional book, a brand new one that had just been released that day. No problem. So that’s four books before limits kick in.

When getting ready to start a fifth book, I noticed that most of my remaining downloads had been marked “available 10/31” ( a month after I signed up). However, three of the already-downloaded books are still available, and I’m listening to one of them now. That’s the fifth book after signing up.

I’ve got hundreds of books on my TBR, and though I already own many of them, there are many more that I do not. I’ve gone through the first 100 or so on the list, checking which ones that Scribd has that I don’t yet own. If a reasonable number of those turn out to not be restricted, I’ll be a happy camper.

I’ve already saved about $40 on this free trial, in just one week. I don’t like the website and I don’t like the app, but if I can even save $40 in a month I’ll be satisfied!

And as for searching — I recommend searching only by author. Searching by title gives you ridiculous results!

[Robin P]

Thanks for the info. I also got the "available on date 30 days after signup " message. I wasn't as smart as you in downloading a lot at the beginning. Still, this is not unlimited!

[Contrarius]

Robin wrote: "Thanks for the info. I also got the "available on date 30 days after signup " message. I wasn't as smart as you in downloading a lot at the beginning. Still, this is not unlimited!"

It is, in their sense of the word. You can read an unlimited number of books -- you just can't always read the specific books you had in mind to read. You can go pick different books and read them. The **number** of books is unlimited, but not always the **selection** of books.

It ain't perfect, and I certainly won't be cancelling my Audible membership, but I think this will help me save money from month to month. I'm going to keep it for a few months in any case, and see how it works out over a longer period.

[Anne ✨]

I'm in my first trial month. I added about 20 books to my saved (wishlist).. I then downloaded 3 books to listen to, and am finishing up the 3rd.

BUT, just like others have mentioned, I now notice that every single title in my saved list now has an 'available on 11/2/2018' flag. I will say I'm a bit shocked that they restricted ALL the books that I was interested in. (there are both newer and older books on this list).

I can download different books, just none of the ones from my saved list.... So that seems crazy, like I shouldn't have put any books to the saved list at all...

I really appreciate that I've read 3 books for free trial, and will be able to read 3 for $8.99 next month, but it will take additional effort to re-look at books and re-choose ones that are "AVAILABLE" for downloading/reading at that time.

I feel like they are abusing the term 'unlimited' with these restrictions... it's more "Unlimited from a LIMITED selection". And they need a clearer indication of books that are A tier (you can only read/listen to 'X' before you're restricted',) and then books that are B tier and unlimited! As it is I have no idea whether I'll be able to download a book or not until the time comes.

I'm ok with 3 books/$8.99 as an additional source, still a good deal, but I will be keeping my focus on Audible and the library, as I don't want to burn hours looking through Scribd selections each month to figure out what to read.

[Contrarius]

Anne ✨ wrote: "it will take additional effort to re-look at books and re-choose ones that are "AVAILABLE" for downloading/reading at that time."

Yeah, I really don't like either their website or their app at all.

I still have a lot of "saved" books showing up as available -- in my case, it's the books that I actually downloaded that are showing up as not available til next month. And I still have a couple of the downloaded books available to me, even though I've already listened to five. So I don't think they are really being consistent in how they limit things.

"I would prefer if they just said 3 audiobooks/month, and then I would prioritize the 3 I wanted each month.. Such silliness!"

I agree that they need work. But you can still prioritize -- figure out the first three or four and get them downloaded (not just "saved") at the beginning of the month. Then if they give you access to more of your TBR than that, great.

"It's ok to have this as an additional source, but will be keeping my focus on Audible and the library for the newer reads."

Me too, except for the library part. My local library is tiny and awful!

edited to add -- maybe the Scribd limits are based on hours of listening instead of number of books? I say that because all the books I've listened to on my trial period so far have been novellas, so my total hours of listening over five books may still not be as much as someone else's total hours over two or three books. Hmmm!

[Robin P]

I think it was deceptive when they told me that the books I wanted were "popular" and that's why I couldn't get them till next month. I imagine it would have happen with whatever books I chose. I think it's a way to keep you subscribing and paying. If I were just starting out, I would probably find this perfectly ok. I used to be limited to what was in the library, and sometimes I found great things that way. At Audible, at first I was happy to have a sale with a few dozen items where I could pick something I hadn't heard of before. Now I am more particular. I don't understand why they don't just say, "choose 2 (or 3) books a month and also enjoy hundreds of available selections". I suppose they are hoping people will join and not use it that much, just like a gym membership. Luckily it is easy to cancel any time.

[Dawn]

When Scribd first started, it was truly unlimited (not many audiobooks at that time), but they quickly had to change that and started limiting selections and for well over a year had a 3 books/1 audiobook per month format. It's just since early this year that they reinstated the "unlimited" format, but as we all can see it's not truly unlimited. I've got an annual plan that will expire in December, not sure I'll renew.

[Contrarius]

I'm running an experiment now. I've listened to five Scribd audios, and I still have two downloaded plus some "saved" that still show up as available for me. I've got those on my phone.

Then last night I also downloaded around 13 ebooks onto my Kindle Fire. They all downloaded without problem, and are showing up as available (I don't get that "available soon" message).

What I've done is I turned off my Fire's wifi after the download -- so my Scribd app can't communicate with the website (it can't tell the website whether I've read these books or not). I'm experimenting to see whether I can read through several or all of the books (most of which were published in the last couple of years) without getting any of them restricted.

If that works, then next month I'll try downloading a bunch of audiobooks and then turning off the wifi -- to see if I can keep listening as long as my usage isn't reported.

Yes, it's a pain that Scribd creates conditions that make me want to play this sort of game. But the monthly fee is good enough that I want to see how much I can get out of it!

[Anne ✨]

Contrarius wrote: "I'm running an experiment now. I've listened to five Scribd audios, and I still have two downloaded plus some "saved" that still show up as available for me. I've got those on my phone.

Then last ..."

oooh that's very clever! I have an old ipad that I could try that with next month!

[Anya]

Contrarius wrote: "I'm running an experiment now. I've listened to five Scribd audios, and I still have two downloaded plus some "saved" that still show up as available for me. I've got those on my phone.

Then last ..."

Very very good idea! I had three audiobook downloaded bus as soon as I started reading my second one the third become unavailable.. only problem now I'm using it with my phone.. got to switch to the tablet and keep it offline.. a bit of a nuisance.. still... thanks for the tip!

[Contrarius]

I don't know yet whether it will work or not, but it's something to experiment with in any case!

I've got an old spare iphone that no longer has cell service but will still connect through wifi. So it's essentially a wifi ipod. If this works with the ebooks this month, I'll use that old iphone to download a bunch of audiobooks at the beginning of next month and then turn off its wifi and see what happens.

[Anya]

Contrarius wrote: "I don't know yet whether it will work or not, but it's something to experiment with in any case!

I've got an old spare iphone that no longer has cell service but will still connect through wifi. S..."

Let's hope they won't find out! I usually don't like to cheat but since Scribd is the first one with a questionable behaviour..