Amazon & Audible books unavailable to libraries

[Robin P]

I love Audible but this is concerning. I didn't realize that libraries can't purchase rights to audiobooks such as Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. C'mon, Amazon, you have tons of money and could do this as a goodwill gesture. Libraries will still be paying, it's not a matter of giving anything away for free. Apparently, the same is true of ebooks that are exclusive to Kindle.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/techno...

[Contrarius]

Yeah, I just read that. Booo on Amazon!

[Joanne Farley]

That is appalling action by Amazon. Shame on them.

[L J]

Article from The Hill 2 Dec 2020
https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbyi...

[Robin P]

Apparently there still is no deal. Reps from Audible used to respond sometimes to our issues on this thread but I haven't seen that in a long time.

[Kandice]

I really dislike this decision. I have read some of the books that are referred to in those articles and feel almost guilty for having done so.

I borrow ebooks and audiobooks from my library all the time. I could never buy every book I want to read. I think this is just a selfish decision.

[Kathleen]

Other publishers do the same thing. Macmillan was doing it for awhile and then libraries boycotted them until they changed their mind. One publisher right now is not releasing their hot new ebook to Overdrive, Just the audio. And, it is not unusual that they do not release their Kindle version to Overdrive right away, only the ePub version. For example, Overdrive did not have the Kindle version for Troubled Blood for almost two months after it was published.

[Mara]

It’s really sad and stingy that a company that flourished during this pandemic, can’t be benevolent enough to let libraries who have been on LIFE SUPPORT tactics for the last year to have the self-published books through God Almighty AMAZON be able on their Overdrive, etc streaming system. Even with Jeff Bezos gone, they still practice his marketing practices.

[Mike]

I will boycott Audible.

[Karen]

Just one more reason I am glad I cancelled my Audible membership. I hated the change to the enhanced format now they are being bullies again. I only buy a few things from Amazon once in awhile but I am going to avoid them as much as I can in light of this. Really hitting a new low.

[Doug]

Is this even new? Years ago, I had a membership with Free Library of Philadelphia, and Brilliance audiobooks, an Amazon owned company, pulled all of its new releases away from libraries. Then they cut off back titles as well, and FLP's audiobook section was halved. That was 6 or 7 years ago. It cut out all the old J.D. Robb "In Death" titles that are all published in audio by Brilliance, for example. Now if you want them in audio you can buy mp3 discs from Amazon of back-stock or go to Audible. Physical libraries still carry Brilliance publications on physical CD, but what a pain if you want to read all of the first 47 In Death books! I'm not paying an Audible credit for each one just to listen to it once.

I read the article, but I didn't think that Audible exclusive or Kindle exclusive titles are anything new. What is new is that more and more popular authors are selecting Amazon as their publisher. I mean, it isn't like they just started doing this right now. It has been going on for many years.