FREE/BARGAIN — Audiobooks

[Catlady]

I'm lucky, I guess--all mp3 files, and I'm finished downloading.

Here's something you might want to be aware of, though--two of the books I downloaded are not the ones I thought I "purchased" as freebies (same titles, different authors: Northanger Abbey was supposed to be a revised version by Val McDermid, but instead I got the original; The Dead Secret was supposed to be Wilkie Collins's work, instead I got a thriller by Ava McCarthy). Another one (The White Princess by Philippa Gregory) is truncated--missing about the first 150 pages' worth of audio. I actually prefer the two wrong downloads, and these were all free, so I'm not going to bother contacting Kobo. But you might want to check that you're getting the correct and complete book.

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Doesn't the problem stem from the fact that when we "buy" an audiobook, we actually are not buying it, but we are buying a license to it? The company, technically, still owns the audiobook? Or am I off base? So, the company can monkey (no offense, intended, tubemonkey) around with the files all, and in any way, that they want to.

I know that that is true with ebooks. I think that that is how Barnes & Noble (Nook), several years ago, got by with suddenly making their ebooks un-downloadable (and without any advance notice at all, that I remember (I still hate B&N because of that (I know, I know--I should have been backing up the files; but, I had backed up only a few of them); since then, I have not bought another ebook--or anything, for that matter--from B&N)).

I think most digital purchases are considered licenses in that you cannot re-sell them or give them away. DRM, though, dictates how you can use the files. If I wanted a DRM audiobook I'll buy it from Audible. I will shop around for DRM-free options like Downpour, Libro.fm, and Audiobooks.com. Kobo had been on the latter list, but if they go to DRM, then I'll not buy sale titles from them.

FWIW, I also don't buy from Google for this same reason.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Doesn't the problem stem from the fact that when we "buy" an audiobook, we actually are not buying it, but we are buying a license to it? The company, technically, still owns the audiobook? Or am I off base? So, the company can monkey (no offense, intended, tubemonkey) around with the files all, and in any way, that they want to.

I know that that is true with ebooks. I think that that is how Barnes & Noble (Nook), several years ago, got by with suddenly making their ebooks un-downloadable (and without any advance notice at all, that I remember (I still hate B&N because of that (I know, I know--I should have been backing up the files; but, I had backed up only a few of them); since then, I have not bought another ebook--or anything, for that matter--from B&N)).

It's been a while since we've gone down this rabbit hole, and I'm not anxious to do it again.

Can we simply say for now that many of us believe our right to use the content legally does and should include the ability to consume it on the devices we choose (format and space shifting), and when content providers prevent us from doing that, we believe they are wrongly infringing on our rights and generally doing a Bad Thing.

ApK


p.s. at the risk of slipping farther into the hole, I'll point out that even with paper books, movies or record albums, copyright law and other doctrine gives consumers certain license, and restricts other stuff. We can for example, sell our copy of a book, but we may not give a public performance of the content, or make hundreds of copies and sell them.
Same idea, just different particular rights and abilities, and different ways of controlling and enforcing them.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by skinmaan

I think most digital purchases are considered licenses in that you cannot re-sell them or give them away. DRM, though, dictates how you can use the files. If I wanted a DRM audiobook I'll buy it from Audible. I will shop around for DRM-free options like Downpour, Libro.fm, and Audiobooks.com. Kobo had been on the latter list, but if they go to DRM, then I'll not buy sale titles from them.

FWIW, I also don't buy from Google for this same reason.

Good information to know. Thanks. Now, if only I'll remember it when an occasion comes up when I really need the information . . . . ha

There may be limits to what the producers of digital items may do with the licenses that they grant, but it seems that they have a pretty wide latitude. More than forbidding re-sell or giving them away to someone else.

I keep going back to ebooks; I don't know if the rules are close to the same as with audiobooks. But, I had a bad experience with a small digital bookstore, in which my ebook library simply disappeared. Poof! There was no notice that it was about to happen or anything--I just happened to have gone to where my library with this bookstore was supposed to be, and found nothing! (I started a thread, "If You Had a Library with WTS Books, It's GONE Now!" on the "News" sub-forum). To make a long story short, I had a representative grudgingly (it seemed) send me a .zip file with all of the books (which were up in the hundreds) that I had purchased from them over the years. I was probably one of the lucky ones; I feel for the poor saps who found out after it was too late.

So, I'm wary and leary when it comes my rights to anything digital that I "own."

[tubemonkey]

Penguin Random House -- exp unknown

• FREE -- The Girl Before -- Rena Olsen/ Brittany Pressley --> 12.4 hrs --> suspense

The Girl Before (publisher's website)

In this powerful psychological suspense debut, when a woman’s life is shattered, she is faced with a devastating question: What if everything she thought was normal and good and true...wasn’t?

Clara Lawson is torn from her life in an instant. Without warning, her home is invaded by armed men, and she finds herself separated from her beloved husband and daughters. The last thing her husband yells to her is to say nothing.

In chapters that alternate between past and present, the novel slowly unpeels the layers of Clara’s fractured life. We see her growing up, raised with her sisters by the stern Mama and Papa G, becoming a poised and educated young woman, falling desperately in love with the forbidden son of her adoptive parents. We see her now, sequestered in an institution, questioned by men and women who call her a different name—Diana—and who accuse her husband of unspeakable crimes. As recollections of her past collide with new revelations, Clara must question everything she thought she knew, to come to terms with the truth of her history and to summon the strength to navigate her future.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Penguin Random House -- exp unknown

• FREE -- The Girl Before -- Rena Olsen/ Brittany Pressley --> 12.4 hrs --> suspense

Why does Penguin keep giving away books I've already bought or read? Anyway, this one is pretty good--there's another book by the same title, by J. P. Delaney, which is better, but I like this one as well, though the subject matter is pretty upsetting.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Why does Penguin keep giving away books I've already bought or read? Anyway, this one is pretty good--there's another book by the same title, by J. P. Delaney, which is better, but I like this one as well, though the subject matter is pretty upsetting.

Send them your wish list of PRH titles and tell them to choose from it

[GtrsRGr8]

What some of you said in today's posts piqued my interest in Kobo audiobooks . . . .

Are they standard MP3's, or does a person need a special player or app to play them? Someone probably mentioned it earlier, but the information got lost in the "noise."

I went to their website, and saw some promising ones, but it looked like it was going to be a pain to find out the above information. Two or three years ago, I bought a B&N audiobook, only to find that I had to have a proprietary B&N app. I didn't even have a smartphone at the time. And it wasn't very easy (like, say, Audible) to get B&N to take back the audiobook.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

What some of you said in today's posts piqued my interest in Kobo audiobooks . . . .

Are they standard MP3's, or does a person need a special player or app to play them? Someone probably mentioned it earlier, but the information got lost in the "noise."

Dude, come on. The 'noise' is precisely the answer to your question.

They we're standard mp3s. Now it seems they are not, at least going by a few of our examples.
You'd need the Kobo app to play them on a smartphone.

Try to keep up!

[Tarana]

Free through June via Alexa - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from Audible; Narrated by actress Scarlett Johansson.

The tough part is that if you already have this title by another narrator, you may find it really hard to start this one. I have the one read by Jim Dale (free a few years ago) and can't get the one by Johansson started up.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by ApK

Dude, come on. The 'noise' is precisely the answer to your question.

They we're standard mp3s. Now it seems they are not, at least going by a few of our examples.
You'd need the Kobo app to play them on a smartphone.

Try to keep up!

"Noise" was a poor choice of words; it easily could have been taken (and obviously was by you, and probably others) negatively to mean something almost like "worthless talk, "junk," or something like that.

I intended for it to be neutral, to express the thought that I knew that the answer to my question was hidden in the content of your discussion(s). It just would take some digging and sorting through the content of the discussion(s), on my part, in order to get that little piece of information that I needed. Something like "irrelevant information" would have come across negatively, too. Maybe I should have just gone into detail like I've just done. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Your statements, "They were standard mp3s. Now it seems they are not, at least going by a few of our examples. You'd need the Kobo app to play them on a smartphone" was exactly what I needed to know.

I saw some goodies, that I'd like to have, among Kobo's audiobooks sale selection, but I seriously am dissuaded, now, from buying any of them. I have a smartphone now, but even after adding a 32GB card to what I have in the onboard memory, whatever amount that is, space is at a premium. I may check my smartphone's owner's manual, that I have on my hard drive here, to see if it tells if I can add a 64GB card. If so, maybe Kobo (and B&N Ack!) would be viable options.

[tubemonkey]

Audible UK -- Daily Deal -- exp 09 Jun

• £1.99 -- Hydra (book 2) -- Matt Wesolowski --> mystery

* Hydra: An Episode of Six Stories

[skinmaan]

Originally Posted by ApK

Regarding playing audiobooks from Kobo with other apps:

Looks like they may have changed things, finally. The last book I downloaded consisted of.enc2 files which did not play as regular Mp3s. (I'm guessing the enc stands for "encrypted.") Can anyone else confirm, or is it just me?

Update: You might find this interesting, but the enc2 file and the mp3 file I had previously downloaded are the same size, bit for bit. This likely means they are still using an mp3 encoder but just made a small tweak somewhere.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Free through June via Alexa - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from Audible; Narrated by actress Scarlett Johansson.

Where did you see this offer? I get Classic Love Poems when I ask for the freebie.

The tough part is that if you already have this title by another narrator, you may find it really hard to start this one. I have the one read by Jim Dale (free a few years ago) and can't get the one by Johansson started up.

Start the version you want on your phone or tablet. You should be able to control it from Alexa from that point on.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

I saw some goodies, that I'd like to have, among Kobo's audiobooks sale selection, but I seriously am dissuaded, now, from buying any of them. I have a smartphone now, but even after adding a 32GB card to what I have in the onboard memory, whatever amount that is, space is at a premium. I may check my smartphone's owner's manual, that I have on my hard drive here, to see if it tells if I can add a 64GB card. If so, maybe Kobo (and B&N Ack!) would be viable options.

My owner's manual says that, "The device can support up to a 2TB microSD card." I had no idea that the phone would support anywhere close to that much memory. Maybe I can think about installing Kobo's app, after all.