Edit: A couple times I’ve said eBook while I actually meant Audiobook. I’ve learned that Spotify has a 15 hour limit per month for their free ‘included in premium’ audiobooks. However these are the two books I listened to for free, and even rounding up to 13 hours it doesn’t make sense, unless they count accidental chapter skips which weren’t actually listened to. But it’s clear now that I know about the 15 hour limit, that they are not counting the time listening to paid audiobooks.
First book I listened to for free:
Second book I listened to for free:
OG post:
I purchased 3 eBooks in the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series (2 came free) and I’m on the final book. 20 minutes left in the last book and this is what Spotify tells me.
I’m over the edge now. I’ve been putting it off too long. I have a nice NUC I purchased about a year ago.
I’m tech inclined, 20 years of hobbyism, know the linux command line well. Work in IT consulting. But I’m busy. Very busy, and unmotivated to do things like hours of research and toying with settings getting things to work, if I ever have the time.
But this is the start of my new personal revolution.
I’ll read the wiki and have read about Sonarr, etc, and I also want movies and shows, but is there anything specifically for eBooks? Looks like Readarr is my best bet? Stripping the DRM of already purchased (and free with Spotify ‘Premium’) books to share on a seedbox is also something I’m willing to take requests on. Is there a way to rip from Spotify if you have a premium account? And what’s the best Android eBook reader (the last 3-4 I tried sucked with pirated eBooks)?
I know I’m sounding like a noob asking everything to be handed to me right now, but I am willing to put in the research and welcome and highly appreciate anyone with tips to point me in the right directions.
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If the experience that a paying customer gets is worse than the experience they get from pirating, then that’s the fault of the company selling that enshitified experience.
It’s wild how modern businesses are trying to kill themselves with every terrible idea they have to make more money.
As shitty as Amazon is, I will say that the books I’ve gotten through Audible are all still there and I can listen to them whenever I want even though I don’t have a subscription or anything anymore.
Wait for a while and Amazon will go down the same route.
Audible replaced a version of a book my boyfriend bought with a completely different version of the same book. I mean a different narrator and everything. He had purchased the book a few years earlier but he didn’t manage to get a refund from them.
The Martian by Andy weir was my first experience of this. They re-recorded it with will wheaton and I “lost” my original with RC Bray. Though I will admit my version was part of the plus catalog, I still didn’t get a choice.
Why would they think this is okay?
Why wouldn’t they, it’s not like anyone is making them act differently.
I’ve been enjoying LibroFM instead of Audible. Same subscription/credits per month model, but a portion goes to support a local bookstore of your choice. Feels way better to do that than give any extra money to Amazon.
OP hasn’t purchased any book. They’re on a plan that lets them listen to any book for free, except it’s time-limited.
I purchased 3/5 books of the series. The 2 free books add up to 13 hours.
I bought a few books off audible, and while I can still access them even without a subscription, I still have them converted to mp3 on my NAS, in case I ever lose access to audible for some reason.
Have you found a way to split those mp3s into several files by chapter etc.? All converters that I have tried so far just yield a single, several hours long mp3…
https://github.com/audiamus/AaxAudioConverter
This should be able to split them by chapter.
Thanks, I’ll try it
I always used SmartAudiobookPlayer (android). It saves your progress nicely. Never felt the need for chapters
I use Voice audiobook player, that can do that, too. But when I switch devices, … it’s easier to pick up where I left, if it’s at least separated by chapters (or as some MP3 CDs do every 3-5 minutes a new track).
Also I do sometimes buy mp3 audiobooks for a blind friend who prefers to listen to them on a CD player (buttons can be felt and its easier to use than a touch screen). But a single, several hours long mp3 is bad in this scenario. And as i didnt find a tool to split them easily, Audible exclusives were out of the question…
https://archive.org/details/hhgttg-ab/
Read by Stephen Fry, no less.
The OG HHGTTG is, the prequel and subsequent books in the series are not unfortunately. But I got used to the other guys voice quickly.
Good to know. Someone posted that in a Books community a few months back and I had it bookmarked. So far, I’ve only listened to the first one that Fry narrated.
The Steven Fry narration really drew me in. He’s fantastic. I was bummed when I started listening to the others but quickly got used to it. Martin Freeman is a good narrator, if not as animated and loud as Fry.
You should give the Douglas Adams narrated ones a try.
He narrated his own?? Hell yeah, I’m going to download them today and give them a re-listen on the suggested apps to see which I like most.
Tbh as a quick fix your local library almost certainly has this audio book. Finish your book then you can look into piracy.
Sadly, that’s the case less and less these days. Distributors are forcing libraries to use digital resources and gouging them on prices.
That would probably explain why mine has 2 digital copies of a book to loan out, and there’s usually a line of 50 people waiting for them.
100%
The loaning models are designed to punish libraries.
You reminded me I do have major regional library card access, if they don’t expire after a couple years.
Pretty sure they don’t. If they do though it’s just a simple matter of showing them your ID.
Yo always check out your library first before piracy, if you can get it free and traffic your library you ought to
(Just cuz libraries are dope)
Do you mean the book is accessible through the Libby app or do you mean to physically go to the library and get a DVD or something? Because my library for example has a very limited number of books in Libby and the last time my PC had DVD-ROM was in 2008
More often Hoopla than Libby for me in the SF Bay Area!
Don’t look for/notice the physical CDs, even filter them out.
Don’t panic. You’ve come to the right place. Spread out your towel and lay on it for a nice nap while you wait for lemmings to reply.
Go to your local library and ask if they have audiobook borrowing through Libby or a similar platform! Not only are you NOT limited on listening hours, but it’s free! You just might have to wait if all the “copies” are borrowed at the moment.
Also, if you have a cool library like I do, you might be able to borrow from multiple libraries. For example, my library card is for the St. Louis County Library, but it can also be used at the St. Charles County Library. So if I am looking for an audiobook on Libby, and SLCL has 3 virtual copies and they are all borrowed, I can search SCCL to see if they have any. I’ve had many situations where I’ll find one library or the other will have a copy available for borrowing with no wait.
Just to piggyback on this comment… If you have a dope library like mine, you don’t even have to go in person to get your library card and do all of the above. I signed up for a card online, downloaded Libby, got everything set up and had an ebook checked out that same day.
Does anyone know cities in the US where you can get a library card and not be from that city, or even state? I know there are a few
You bought the audiobooks on Spotify, and then they limited your listening time? What the fuck? Do you have a subscription? DIdn’t even know they sold audiobooks; just thought they had some free ones.
Exactly. I pay for Spotify premium, I purchased 3/5 books in this series, and maybe it’s because 2 of the books were free with premium (incl this last book) that it’s time limiting me. But if that’s the case it’s also counting time listened during my paid-for eBooks. Absolutely crazy to me.
That doesn’t sound right, I’m betting it’s a bug due to some in the series being bought and some on the time limit deal. Reach out to support.
If this isn’t an unintended glitch that’s horse shit. I would cancel my account and tell them why.
2 ebooks could easily be >15hours. OP sounds like a bullshitter to me. I don’t see how they could come to the conclusion that “its also counting time listened during my paid-for ebooks”. They could provide more info, but they arent. I think they just got mad that they couldnt finish the last 20 minutes of the book (understandably) and decided to flame spotify
So it’s supposed to be 15 hours/month included with your premium subscription? Since I’m not familiar with how Spotify audio books work, I thought you meant that you had a free account and was allowed to listen 15 hours to books that would be included/unlimited with a premium subscription. Contact support if it ate through your monthly credits faster that it should. If you’re a paying customer supports are usually quite helpful.
Yeah, it’s weird, I thought they were just included with premium, no idea there was a listening limit.
Audiobookbay, My Anonamouse, Audiobookshelf
I have even found some while using soulseek
This is the way…
Audiobookshelf is the tits
Edit: It’s so straightforward my hygienist wife can use it.
Are… hygienists famously known for not being smart? I don’t think that’s a thing lmao
High gymnast? It’s ok my ex-wife is a tard and she’s a pilot now.
Ow My Balls! plays in background
If you wanna selfhost your own solution, I can recommend Audiobookshelf. It scraps metadata from Apple, Amazon, Google etc, tracks on a per-user basis at what point in the book you are, can be used in a browser and has an android app. It’s easy to set up with Docker too. You can even add PDFs and epubs to the books.
Been using it for a few months and it has been great.
As for sourcing of audiobooks, aside from torrents there are also audiobb.com & audiobooksbee.com . They use RapidGator as host for a ddl.
Mobilism.org has also served me very well for over a decade
average mobilism enjoyer
Hey, thanks for the Audiobookshelf recommendation!
Recently I was looking for a audiobook player and Smart Audiobook Player was the best I found, but Audiobookshelf have almost all of the functions I liked like simultaneous dual timeline bar (one for the whole book and another for the current chapter), auto sleep, shake to reset sleep and so on. Just missed the small beep alert before the audio fade out on sleep.
Anyway, and all of this with the advantage of using my already selfhosted data, so no need to keep transferring files manually to the device. And all the progress are synced back to my homeserver, so I can use multiple devices without any problems.
Theres an iOS app too… only available via testflight, and I don’t recall where the link is… but its out there.
libraries let you check out audiobooks for free
They even often have them streaming for free. All of my wife’s audiobooks are free streamed via the library and she listens to them every day.
My library closed recently because of structural issues with the building. I finally made up my mind and drove over to get a card. What a bummer.
Fuck Spotify I would demand a refund then do a chargeback if they refuse. This is fucked.
You can only do so many chargebacks before you’re banned from using that payment network, which considering it’s Spotify they likely use one of the largest payment networks. I save chargebacks for when I got royally fscked, not just irritated inconvenience.
What the fuck lmao
Why does anyone use shitify
Why does anyone use shitify
Virtually every single song in the world in your pocket for a little over 10 euros a month doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me. Then again why does anyone use spotify for anything other than listening to music, there your guess is as good as mine.
Some currently trending pop music, you say?
Oh, my apologies for being a mere mortal with a taste for mainstream mediocrity. Clearly, my lack of access to the obscure, avant-garde, underground artists you champion is a tragic oversight. I’ll just be over here enjoying my basic playlist, blissfully unaware of the elevated musical tastes reserved for the chosen few like yourself. Carry on enlightening us, oh connoisseur of the esoteric.
Wake up babe, new Lemmy copypasta just dropped
I saw some avant garde shit the other day, and there it was on spotify. Everyone is on spotify
Honestly, like… who isn’t on spotify? I think Metallica was holding out, but there on there now, and looks like Garth Brooks is also holding out. No one else I’ve ever looked up, including very small artists, were not on spotify.
No, there’s lots of niche artists on Spotify, as well as old stuff
I hate Spotify (I have to preface with this sentence)
But plenty of artists these days don’t bother releasing CDs and MP3s and you can legitimately only stream their songs.
I know small artists who were unable to send me the files of their own songs when I asked them. They just sent me a YouTube link and told me to listen there.
Convenient, easy to use, available everywhere.
YouTube music clients?
I’d maybe try youtube music, if google didn’t force it down my throat. But when I can’t uninstall it without rooting my phone. Or when I’ve got Spotify already setup, and then have to specify that I want to use it on my home devices. That’s just annoying.
Me: ok google! Bedroom lamps color red, bedroom lamps intensity 30% and play Diana Krall the look of love on the bedroom speakers
Google: Playing The Look of Love by Diana Krall from youtube music, but first listen to these ads before you get your freak on
Needs constant internet connection
Innertune can download music
Cool, let me know when youtube music starts using lossless audio.
Does Shittify ?
They don’t, there were and potentially still are plans to add the ability to listen at CD quality, but it’s been almost 3 years since the announcement so I highly doubt it’s coming anymore. It also would’ve been 20 USD, at that price I would rather use Spotify premium for it’s playlist features and Qobuz for it’s fidelity for that price.
Apparently not, but Apple Music & Tidal do.
I love innertune
Me too but cache takes allot of space, if it gets over 5gb the app gets laggy and buggy
How is it shitty in this case? That’s literally what OP bought, the right to listen to any book in Spotify’s catalog for free, for a certain number of hours. If they wanted to listen to a specific book unlimited they should have purchased that book directly.
Because thats what “buying” means, right.
They haven’t bought anything though. Or rather, they got exactly what they paid for, listening time.
I’m pretty sure this is a concept OP must’ve seen before, they can’t be that clueless. If you borrow a book from the library you don’t own it, and you have to be done with it by the time it’s due.
At this point I’m not sure if they’re just new to audiobooks or if they’re misrepresenting Spotify’s time-limited plans on purpose.
They baught 3 audiobooks and premium … But sure, shill for spotify.
They bought one book, the others were free with time limit.
If Spotify misrepresented the free books or was unclear about what they represent then by all means, they should be called out. But it’s a bit different from what OP has complained about.
Buying premium doesnt factor in for you at all?
Premium is pretty much only for music, the audio book part is more like a free demo. Including them in the normal premium sub is unsustainable.
I’ve got a cracked version of some dodgy russian app store
This isn’t exactly what you asked for and might not even work, but look up xManager. It lets you install a modded version of Shittify with premium features on free accounts – maybe this limitation is something they also modded away?
The moment they tried to make me pay just to skip songs was the moment I downloaded xmanager. Haven’t gone back since. Absolutely ridiculous what Spotify thinks I will pay for.
It’s been a while since I had the opportunity for audiobooks, so those specifically I’m a little out of the loop. Audiobookbay was a thing at some point.
For e books… Z-library and/ or Anna’s archive. The reader I use is ReadEra premium, it can handle pretty much any format although default to pick is epub. I don’t think you really need to buy premium, I just did because I wanted to support them. I’ve been using it for forever with almost no problems. You can adjust the things you want (font, spacing, light/dark, etc), but the basic format when reading is very simple once you have it set up
+1 from me for ReadEra as well, great app.
I already use ReadEra for all my documents needs. Does it save progress well with audiobooks?
I believe he’s using it for ebooks, not audiobooks. I don’t think it’s playing audio.
Ok, audiobook isn’t the same as an ebook.
Spotify is absolute ass for audiobooks and podcasts. I wish there was something better for streaming, although one of these days I’ll get around to self hosting. Maybe after retirement…
Anyway, for audiobooks I used “Voice Audiobook Player”, it’s free and open source, minimal permissions required.
For anyone wondering about podcasts, “Podcast Addict”. It has too many menus and options, can be confusing, but still a million times better than Spotify. Once you have it set up the way you want those options are very nice. Still confusing at times though :D
That’s my fault, I messed up and said ebook a few times while meaning audiobooks.
The enshitification is real!
Library Card
Depends on your local library but I have for example unlimited E Books included.
Libby app.
I’m embarrassed that I never thought of this. Sure enough, my library lends both e-books and audiobooks. It’s limited to 2-3 per month, but that’s more than I need anyway
I saw a librarian say on a post that people should borrow from the library anyways, even if they don’t think that they’ll get to it before it’s due, because it means that they can use the higher rates of usage to argue for more funding. Getting something for free and helping the local libraries at the same time? Sounds like a win-win to me.
