I wrote a short piece on Audible a couple of years ago for Book Magazine.

I said then that ebooks were getting too much hype, but digital distribution of audiobooks makes sense.

I subscribe to the 2 books per month deal. It turns out to be more than you can listen to in 30 days. The selection is large and includes best sellers both fiction and non-fiction. I do not subscribe to the magazine service but I expect it is equally good. I am collecting classics and current fiction. The quality is good and the service has been reliable. Only problem- I have been looking for a portable player that plays .wma format but have not yet found what I am looking for. Most of the larger unabridged works are in the 10 - 20 hour length at setting 3. (There are 5 settings with increasing sound quality and file length from 1 to 5. I use 3.) It is a great value. Just have to solve my portability problem.

b

I have used audible.com before on my Compaq PDA and was very happy with the service. I don't like having to install extra software on my PDA and hate dealing with the compatibility issues that come with a proprietary format, but I have not had any problems yet.

I get the two audiobooks per month and I thoroughly enjoy them. I've had some problems with MP3 Players though but that's just my luck with these devices -- not just Audible's Otis player but Sonic Blue's Rio as well, someday I'll get a MAC and IPod. Even with the lack of portability Audible.com is a deal if you're a member of a listener plan. (Enter "tenorman" as a recruiter if you join, we'll both get a deal)

I now listen to Audible's audiobooks when near my computer and I borrow audiocassettes from the library for portability -- Audible doesn't have the rights to some things so it was nice that my library had Matt Dillon narrating On the Road by Kerouac the other day. (sorry for any errors here)

I'd like to thank Salon.com for teaming up with Audible.com -- I wouldn't have heard of them otherwise.

It may take time to find narrators you enjoy but Frank Muller is one of the best -- especially in The Talisman by Stephen King. (Frank Muller is recovering from a motorcycle accident -- honorable mention to the narrator of The Company)

I wanted to add that I checked some competitors in the field of audiobooks and I prefer Audible's prices and the ability to download.

Audible have a good selection, but I'm not sure I trust them with my credit card. I used to subscribe to their 2 books per month at $15 or so, which is as easy to set up as you'd expect it to be. Click, and you're in. Then I got tired of it, and tried to cancel the subscription. There's no way to do this through the web interface, for "security" reasons. You can start a subscription with a click, but you can't stop it. You have to call them and confirm your identity, (and they don't even tell you this until you ask). I live in Norway, so that's not an option. I chose to garble my credit card information instead, exchanged a few heated e-mails with them, and went away. For all I know, they're still trying to bill me $15 a month on a non-existent credit card.

This might be a minor complaint, but I can't think of any technical or security reasons why they wouldn't allow their users to cancel their subscriptions online. More likely they're desperate enough for money to throw obstacles in the way of exiting customers. I don't think that's a good sign. Online commerce depends on trust, and I don't trust Audible.