The audiobooks, such as those from the Audible store, have become a great alternative for many people. These audio book formats allow you to listen to your favorite stories narrated by voices, sometimes by celebrities who lend themselves to it. A way to enjoy your favorite passion without having to read on a screen.
Also, these books are perfect for people who are lazy to read, who have some kind of visual impairment, or who want to enjoy these narratives while cooking, driving, exercising, or just laying back to relax and enjoy the literature. On the other hand, it must be said that in Audible you will not only have audiobooks, you will also find podcasts on a single platform.
What is an audiobook
With the arrival of eReaders, or electronic book readers, the possibility of having thousands and thousands of books to read wherever you wanted was given in the same light device of just a few grams. Plus, the e-Ink screens brought the experience closer to reading about the actual books. Reading has always been a fundamental part of many people and for education, allowing to expand knowledge, improve our vocabulary and spelling, learn languages, or enjoy fiction.
However, the current pace of life for many people who love literature does not allow them to have a moment to relax and read. Therefore, with the arrival of audiobooks this changed completely. Thanks to these audio files you will be able to enjoy all the book titles you want while doing other activities, such as when you are driving, while cooking, exercising, or at any other time. And for all this Audible is the perfect solution.
In short, a audiobook or audiobook it is nothing more than a recording of a book read aloud, that is, a narrated book. A new way of disseminating content that is increasing in the number of followers and that many eReaders already have the capacity for this type of format (MP3, M4B, WAV,...).
What is Audible
When we talk about audiobooks, a One of the largest platforms where you can buy these titles is Audible. It is a large store owned by Amazon and is following in the footsteps of the Kindle, since it is one of the largest audio libraries in terms of variety and number of copies. Some of them narrated by famous voices that you will know from the world of dubbing or cinema, such as listening to Alice in Wonderland with the voice of Michelle Jenner, or voices like José Coronado, Leonor Watling, Juan Echanove, Josep Maria Pou, Adriana Ugarte, Miguel Bernardeu and Maribel Verdu...
Instead of being a store to use where to buy, Audible is a subscription service, so you will have to pay a small fee each month to continue using the service. A way to invest in your leisure, learning and expanding knowledge instead of wasting that money on other unproductive things. Also, if you have to study, listening to it over and over again will be a great way to consolidate knowledge. And you can not only enjoy audiobooks with Audible, but also podcasts.
On the other hand, it is important to point out that in order to use the service you will have to choose the duration of the plan that suits you, such as a single month free, six months or twelve months. you can do it withto the same account that you have associated with Amazon or Prime. Once you're an Audible member, the next thing to do is search for your favorite titles and start enjoying them.
Permanence
You should know that Audible does not have permanence, you can cancel your subscription at any time. To do this, just follow a few simple steps:
- Go to the website Audible.es.
- Open the Details section.
- Select Subscription details.
- At the bottom, click Cancel subscription.
- Follow the wizard and it will be cancelled.
Remember that if you have paid for the full month or a full year, you will continue to have Audible until your current subscription expires, despite having canceled it, so you will continue to enjoy what you have paid for. Also, deleting the app does not cancel the subscription as some think. It's something to consider.
Audible History
Audible, although it is now associated with Amazon, the truth is that it started much earlier. This independent company was created in 1995, and he did it to develop a digital audio player to be able to listen to books. An accessibility option for many people with vision problems, or for those lazy people who don't like to read much.
Due to the technology of the mid 90's, the system had its limitations. For example, I was only able to store 2 hours of audio in proprietary format. This added to other problems put the company through very difficult times, such as when its CEO, Andrew Huffman, died of a sudden heart attack.
However, Audible was able to move on after sign a contract with Apple in 2003 to provide audiobooks through the iTunes platform. This triggered its popularity and sales, which made Amazon notice its rapid growth to end up acquiring it for 300 million dollars...
Current Audible Catalog
Currently there are more than 90.000 titles available in this great audiobook store. Therefore, you will be able to find books for all tastes and ages, of any genre, as well as podcasts by Ana Pastor, Jorge Mendes, Mario Vaquerizo, ALaska, Olga Viza, Emilio Aragón, and many more. This transforms Audible into one of the largest audiobook stores, to compete against Nextory, Storytel, or Sonora.
And you should know that the content is growing progressively, since new titles are added every day to add up. So you will not lack entertainment with Audible... In fact, you will find categories such as:
- Teens
- Arts and entertainment
- Children's audiobooks
- Biographies and memories
- science and engineering
- Science fiction and fantasy
- Sports and outdoors
- Money and finance
- Education and formation
- Erotica
- History
- Home and garden
- Informatic and tecnology
- LGBT
- Literature and fiction
- Business and professions
- Police, black and suspense
- Politics and social sciences
- Relationships, parenting and personal development
- Religion and spirituality
- Romantic
- Health & Wellness
- Travels and tourism
search filters
With so many titles available and so many categories, you may think that finding what you are looking for on Audible can be difficult. But you'll see that no the store has search filters to refine and obtain the desired result. For example:
- Filters by time to see the latest releases.
- Search by duration of the audiobook, in case you want a long story or a short story.
- By language.
- By accent (Spanish or neutral Latin).
- Format (audiobook, interview, speech, conference, training program, podcasts)
Supported platforms
Audible can be enjoyed on multiple platforms. In addition, it not only offers online content to play from the cloud, you can also download the titles to listen to them offline when you do not have an Internet connection.
Going back to the topic of platforms, you will be able to install natively in:
- Windows
- MacOS
- iOS/iPadOS via the App Store
- Android through Google Play
- From the web browser with any other operating system
- Compatible with Amazon Echo (Alexa)
- Coming soon to Kindle eReaders
About the app
Whether through the Audible website or with the client app, you should know that you have several cool features among which we highlight:
- Play the audiobook from the exact moment where you last left off.
- Go to the minute or second you want at any time.
- Go back/forward 30 seconds in the audio.
- Change playback speed: 0.5x to 3.5x.
- Timer to turn off after a while. For example, to play for 30 minutes and turn off because you're going to sleep.
- The native app can work in the background to be able to do other things with our device. Even simultaneous playback to put a background of music or relaxing, for example.
- It supports adding markers at a moment in the audio that we find interesting to quickly return to that moment easily and quickly.
- Add notes.
- Some audiobooks come with attachments when you purchase them. For example, it can be illustrations, PDF documents, etc.
- All your acquisitions will be organized in the Library section.
- Download option to be able to listen to the audiobook offline, without being connected to the Internet.
- See statistics of the audiobooks you carry, the time you have spent, etc. You even have levels based on how long you spend listening.
- You have a News section to receive the latest news, changes and modifications.
- The Discover option allows you to see recommendations or notable news from Audible.
- Car mode to avoid distractions while driving.
Advantages of having Audible
Amazon's Audible platform features great advantages among which stand:
- Improve literacy and expand vocabulary: Thanks to listening to books, you will also be able to improve your literacy and expand your vocabulary, to obtain new words that you may not have known before. In addition, it can be enjoyed by people with vision problems or who are blind, people who do not like to read, or dyslexics who would have problems with conventional books.
- Culture and knowledge: listening to audiobooks not only improves vocabulary, but also broadens knowledge and your culture if what you are listening to is a history, science, etc. book. And all with little hassle, while you do other things.
- Improved concentration: By paying attention to narrations, this can improve your ability to focus, even when multitasking.
- Increased health and well-being: If you read self-help, wellness or health books, you can also see how the changes and advice proposed by these audiobooks have a positive impact on your life.
- Improved understanding: Another of the abilities that is improved is comprehension.
- Learn languages: With audiobooks in other languages, such as those in English, you will not only be able to enjoy all of the above, but you will also be able to learn any language and its pronunciation in a fun way thanks to native narrations.
And all, as you well know, without having to do practically anything, just listen while you exercise, do housework, relax, drive, etc.
Help and contact
To end this article, it must be said that if you have any problem with the subscription or with the Audible platform, Amazon has a contact service to be able to speak on the phone with an assistant, or through email. To do this, just go to the Audible contact page.