Scribd shrinking its romance catalog

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Atunah

Holy moly, they are killing them self off step by step. I can't believe I used to be such a cheerleader for them at one point.

You and me both. Scribd will fail at the rate they are changing. It's just a matter of time they go to a credit base system like DANL tried.

[booklover6]

At first glance, it appears to be one a month. However, that is not entirely true, according to the blog.

After that 30 days, we’ll be offering a rotating catalog of thousands of audiobooks for unlimited listening. These are being made available through special arrangements with publishing partners. We’ll be working on more deals like this, so the selection will be updated monthly with new titles.

For audiobooks outside of that unlimited catalog, simply use the audiobook credit you receive at the start of each billing cycle.

So it may not be as bad as it seems at first glance. It all depends on what is available in the unlimited audio portion.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by booklover6

So it may not be as bad as it seems at first glance. It all depends on what is available in the unlimited audio portion.

Well, they include Librivox books in their listings--I'm sure those will be unlimited.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Well, they include Librivox books in their listings--I'm sure those will be unlimited.

That was the way I read that.
That it'll take them a month to segregate the PD audiobooks from the commercial ones.
Kinda like the way they pruned authors' paid-for titles but kept the permafree ones.

[Catlady]

They're offering me two weeks free when I go to the Scribd page. I may take them up on it and gorge on audiobooks while I still can!

[tubemonkey]

They should change their name from Scribd to Screwd

[thewitt]

Unlimited downloads for less than the price of a typical paperback isn't a financially viable model. It's that simple I'm afraid.

[booklover6]

Check your Scribd accounts. There is now an exclamation point at the top left of each book cover, which indicates books that will "cost" a monthly credit. Pretty much everything in my account.

Did everyone hear, Tune In Premium streams audio books now? I've started my free trial.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Check your Scribd accounts. There is now an exclamation point at the top left of each book cover, which indicates books that will "cost" a monthly credit. Pretty much everything in my account.

Did everyone hear, Tune In Premium streams audio books now? I've started my free trial.

I went on just to see what was available as audio on scribd in the unlimited plan. I went to a subgenre, historical romance and listed all. I kept scrolling and scrolling and I found 3 and those were shorts or epilogues. I think I found one other. Everything else needs a credit. And they happy sell you more credits for 8.99 each. That is just for loaning though, one doesn't even own the thing.

Don't now what is part in the unlimited audio plan, I sure didn't really see any romance.

I hope Tune In works for you. I know you like the audio books. I struggle to much to get into them and I can get some from the library if I need. I wanted to read books.

I guess they succeeded in their business plan. Get rid of any and all romance readers.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I guess they succeeded in their business plan. Get rid of any and all romance readers.

Someone should setup an all romance subscription plan. All the ebooks and audiobooks you can consume; and no restrictions. Only $59 per month.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Did everyone hear, Tune In Premium streams audio books now? I've started my free trial.

Thanks. This is the first I've heard of it.

How large is their romance section?

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Thanks. This is the first I've heard of it.

How large is their romance section?

Some romance audio books I checked (which are expiring on Scribd) are available. I don't listen to a lot of romance, I prefer audio books for suspense, sci fi, non fiction, urban fantasy. I found quite a few in those categories.

With further searching, I found at least a dozen sci fi audio books in Scribd that are not marked with the credit symbol. There appears to be no logical division. Also there is, as yet, no way to search just for non-credit audio books.

[Blossom]

Scribd wont last much longer. I was one of their biggest supporters around here and now I am just shaking my head it's so sad!

[tubemonkey]

I queried Scribd about the audiobook credits (renting or buying) and got a response.

When someone uses a monthly credit to get an audiobook, is the book theirs to keep forever or is it just being borrowed?

Hi there!

Great question! As long as you have an active membership on the site, credits and audiobooks on Scribd are available to you. Due to our publishing deals however, content you've used credits to access unfortunately will not be fully available when you cancel and the membership expires. We're truly sorry for any inconvenience this causes.

We'll still keep the content saved for you though! The second you have a membership with us again, you'll be able to dive right back into those audiobooks you redeemed (no additional credits needed). And remember, you automatically get 1 credit per month, so you'll be able to dive into new content right away too. We are working on deals to allow them to be available even without the active membership, but at this time that is the only requirement to be able to continue to listen to anything you've redeemed a credit for.

[tubemonkey]

Since audiobook credits at Scribd are only rentals at $8.99 each, don't forget to check Downpour before buying additional credits. Downpour also rents audiobooks and most of their 10,000+ audiobook rental catalog is priced around $5.95 and $6.95.