I only found out about Libro.fm very recently, and it’s so good I wish I’d been told about it much, much sooner. It’s not quite as polished as the OverDrive/Libby experience, but hey, take the free books where you can!) Libro.fm is king
(If your library doesn’t use OverDrive to manage its digital collection, it may support CloudLibrary instead. Libby is available for both Android and Apple devices. Any audiobooks you check out of the library will populate in Libby, and you can listen to them without even leaving the app. The Libby app is top-notch: smooth and user-friendly with very few hiccups, in my experience. Overdrive completely overhauled its main mobile app a few years ago and reintroduced itself as Libby. Libby’s playback interface is really quite nice. But there’s a hold system, too, and Overdrive will even estimate how long you’ll be waiting and send you an email when your book is ready for download. The library purchases a set number of audiobook licenses for each book, which means you might not always be able to access a title right away. After logging in with your library card number, you can browse librarian-curated collections or search for a specific title or author. Your library’s OverDrive portal will almost definitely be linked on the library’s main website if not, you may need to inquire with a librarian.Īlmost every aspect of Overdrive is meant to mirror the experience of visiting a physical library. Each library has a personalized URL for accessing its particular flavor of Overdrive the Brooklyn Public Library system’s is, for example. The majority of library systems in the United States use a platform called Overdrive for both ebooks and audiobooks. Libby will even tell you how long to expect before your hold comes in. But libraries are truly the best source of books, no matter what format you’re in the market for. If you’ve read any of my previous book-related guides, I’m probably beginning to sound like a broken record with this one. Still, there are other options for ebook-listening, even if a cursory Google search won’t reveal them. The platform’s prowess also means publishers are reticent to avoid Audible in its entirety to do so would be to opt out of a huge chunk of potential sales. At a base level, it’s problematic that Amazon protects its audiobook files with DRM - thereby allowing readers only to enjoy their books if they stay locked into Amazon’s platform.Īmazon’s general monopolization of the internet makes it even more difficult to break out of Audible’s vicious cycle - most internet roads lead back to Audible. And as Audible has grown, so too has the magnitude of its issues for both consumers and authors. In the decade or so since Amazon acquired Audible for $300 million, the service has grown to include billions in revenue every year, essentially cornering the entire audiobook market.
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