Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Might Be Developing an Audiobooks Service
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The prices are set by the publisher of the ebook, nothing to do with Apple.
Downpour is the only audiobook company for me.
Audiobooks is all they do.
I purchased an audiobook from Apple and it is locked down with DRM.
Downpour only does that with rentals.
Apple is getting like Amazon.
They’ve got their hands in your pocket as frequently as they can.
A $3 Trillion company!
Is it an attempt to provide better service or is it greed?
Audiobooks is all they do.
I purchased an audiobook from Apple and it is locked down with DRM.
Downpour only does that with rentals.
Apple is getting like Amazon.
They’ve got their hands in your pocket as frequently as they can.
A $3 Trillion company!
Is it an attempt to provide better service or is it greed?
Apple in 2022 could expand its services portfolio to add an audiobooks service, according to a report from The Economist (via 9to5Mac) that outlines Apple's efforts to break into media and compete with Netflix, Amazon, and other companies.
The Economist goes over all of Apple's existing services like Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness before throwing in a one line mention of a possible audiobooks offering.There are no details beyond the quick mention of an audiobooks option, so it's not clear where The Economist's information is coming from nor what an audiobooks product from Apple might look like, but with Apple already competing in podcasts and books, audiobooks could be the next logical step.
Apple already sells audiobooks through its Apple Books app, but books are only sold on a one-off basis with no option for unlimited listening. Apple could perhaps develop a service similar to Amazon's Audible, which offers credits for audiobooks for a monthly fee along with a selection of "Audible Plus" titles that do not require credits.
Pricing on Audible Plus starts at $7.95 for a limited selection of audiobooks that does not include new releases, while Audible Premium Plus is priced at $14.95 for Plus access and a credit for a new book each month. Offering an audiobooks service that includes unlimited access to new audiobooks is probably unlikely given the cost and royalties involved with audiobooks, so Apple would likely need to use Amazon's format or something close to it.
Article Link: Apple Might Be Developing an Audiobooks Service
How about an Apple Books subscription service, kind of like a digital library. So for example for a fee you have access to "check" books out of apple books, read them and say you had a month or 2 to read them and then they go away like Movies you rent. I read all this stuff about the Ipad and keep thinking it was originally designed as a reading device, yet it hasn't been sold as a reading device in years. Basically other than the software is there really a difference between the Mac Air laptop and an Ipad these days?
I really, really love audible. I subscribe with a yearly subscription and I get a certain number of credits that allow me to purchase books and not pay for them separately.
Audible can be used via Carplay too. I just wish my car had wireless carplay! I normally just use bluetooth but the volume is way to low for some reason. It was the same on my last car.
I really only see this being a success if Apple can do a sort of "Apple TV" audiobook streaming type of service at a low price, much less than $9.99, with exclusive titles that you can listen to as much as you want but can only be played as long your subscription is active.
They can then bundle it in their Apple One Premium bundle without added costs for the consumer.
They can then bundle it in their Apple One Premium bundle without added costs for the consumer.
Total *********. I looked at several kindle books this weekend, and the same books on Apple were at least $5 more.
I think ending iBooks Author was a mistake but that's because I used it to convert my course notes into interactive searchable documents. Real books published with it felt cookie cutter and cheap.
Apple sells audiobooks, and the biggest issue with their service is the lack of priority and the DRM. Lack of priority made me nervous they would kill it - and given they killed Aperture and other premium products I had no doubt that Apple wouldn't destroy my audiobooks if support became inconvenient.
This was made worse by a DRM that was absent from songs on Apple Music. Kindle and Audible have DRM but removing it is trivial. The publishers may not like that it's so easy to defeat but they benefit handsomely from it. I buy 12 audible credit bundles for $99 and it takes me a year to use them all because I end up not using them to pay for books on sale. Then there are discounts for audiobooks when you own the ebook. Sometimes I buy eBooks I know I won't read because I am betting it will be cheaper to acquire the audiobook later on.
As for podcasts, music, and voice assistants... There is nothing wrong with Apple Podcast app. Apple music is far superior to Spotify. And siri is no more irritating than OK Gloggles and Alexa.
I find prices fluctuate a lot and they seem to have a rotating retail presence similar to how video games go on sale at Walmart, then Best Buy, then Target, then Amazon... Have you tried cheapcharts.info? It lets you search iTunes, App Store, Mac App Store, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, Xbox, PS Store, and N eShop for games, movies, TV, music, audiobooks, books, and apps.
The kind of person doing enough audiobooks or ebooks to warrant a subscription would read a lot, lot more than that.
Oh gods, no! Have you used the current Books app on the Mac? It's a UX nightmare.
Want to see the names and individual chapters in an audiobook? You have to start paying the book and then click the little "bullet point list" icon in the top right to see the chapters. Why do I have to PLAY an audiobook to see what's in it?!
Want to delete a chapter from an audiobook? Can't do it.
How about changing the tags of an audiobook? Can't do it in the Books app. You have to:
1. Locate the file in Finder (which you can't do in the Books app).
2. Turn off your internet connection (!!!).
3. Drag the file into the Music app and change the tags there.
4. Then, you can drag the file out of Music and delete it from Music.
(The reason you turn off your internet connection for this is because the Music app tries to upload it to your iCloud Music Library, and if you've opened the info window while it's doing this, any changes you make are not saved. Don't let Music upload it, and you can edit the tags without issue.)
5. Then, you drag it back into the Books app, but as you can't delete an individual chapter, you have to remove the entire audiobook and re-import the whole thing.
It's the worst app Apple have ever made, and I'm going to look for an alternative, as this is driving me nuts.
Want to see the names and individual chapters in an audiobook? You have to start paying the book and then click the little "bullet point list" icon in the top right to see the chapters. Why do I have to PLAY an audiobook to see what's in it?!
Want to delete a chapter from an audiobook? Can't do it.
How about changing the tags of an audiobook? Can't do it in the Books app. You have to:
1. Locate the file in Finder (which you can't do in the Books app).
2. Turn off your internet connection (!!!).
3. Drag the file into the Music app and change the tags there.
4. Then, you can drag the file out of Music and delete it from Music.
(The reason you turn off your internet connection for this is because the Music app tries to upload it to your iCloud Music Library, and if you've opened the info window while it's doing this, any changes you make are not saved. Don't let Music upload it, and you can edit the tags without issue.)
5. Then, you drag it back into the Books app, but as you can't delete an individual chapter, you have to remove the entire audiobook and re-import the whole thing.
It's the worst app Apple have ever made, and I'm going to look for an alternative, as this is driving me nuts.
Maybe audiobooks with spatial features, such as creepy ghosts whispering right into your ear, trains running you over, spooky caves and such.
But seriously - Audible has been an excellent service with regards to service. There are however a couple of productions that could have much better recordings. Mostly it is about “who reads” but in some cases the audio feels like recorded on a conference call equipment. And those are really hard to enjoy (especially when you have outstanding ones to compare to). And I would expect top quality if Apple produces the recordings.
On the other hand, there are productions like a radio play. These are not really audio books, but it is a well developed genre in Germany and that would be something I would immensely enjoy if Apple did such productions. TV for radio.
But just another shop? Nope …
But seriously - Audible has been an excellent service with regards to service. There are however a couple of productions that could have much better recordings. Mostly it is about “who reads” but in some cases the audio feels like recorded on a conference call equipment. And those are really hard to enjoy (especially when you have outstanding ones to compare to). And I would expect top quality if Apple produces the recordings.
On the other hand, there are productions like a radio play. These are not really audio books, but it is a well developed genre in Germany and that would be something I would immensely enjoy if Apple did such productions. TV for radio.
But just another shop? Nope …
Now that you mention it I can’t delete a verse from song on Apple Music or a scene from one of Apple’s movies or TV shows.
I love this idea. Personally I prefer the one-off purchases, as I'm too inundated with podcasts to keep up with a subscription model for audiobooks, but the more apple services the better. I'm personally not a huge fan of the audible app. The iBooks app is already really good in my opinion.
Why would an author, a narrator, or a tech company give there work for free? How entitled can someone be.
Hilarious ? The point is that if you want to edit the tags of one chapter in an audiobook, you cannot delete just that chapter and replace it with an edited version.
That’s not what was said. Are you now saying when you add tags they are permanent?
Great. Glad to see customers and big corporations love fragmented services and exclusive deals in yet one more market “audiobooks”, as if purchasing 3 streaming services for contents is not good enough huh. /s
I am surprised and glad to see people still prefer reading books on paper rather than on all sorts of electronic devices. Paper book always come with irreplaceable advantages over eBooks and such because of its distraction-free experience. It’s too bad that companies are working extremely hard to make sure next generation never truly know the advantage of reading books, or aware of its existence at all.