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.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • w3dd1e@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        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.

        • Stupidmanager@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          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.

      • iheartneopets@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        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.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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        9 months ago

        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.

    • Localhorst86@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • elvith@feddit.de
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        9 months ago

        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…

        • abbadon420@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          I always used SmartAudiobookPlayer (android). It saves your progress nicely. Never felt the need for chapters

          • elvith@feddit.de
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            9 months ago

            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…

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    Full Explanation:

    Spotify introduced Audiobooks to their platform in November 2023:

    • Unlimited listening to public domain classics.
    • 15 free hours per month of premium audiobooks.
    • 10 hour top ups available.
    • Can purchase premium audiobooks for unlimited listening.

    OP purchased book 1 and can listen to it all they want. They did not purchase book 2 or 3, and also listened to other audiobooks, putting them over the 15 hour limit.

    Key Facts:

    • Spotify Audiobooks are a new feature with no additional subscription cost.
    • OP used all of their free credits for the month.
    • OP was never prevented from listening to a book they purchased.

    That said, stop paying for audiobooks like a chump and get a library card.

      • Neil@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        I tried this and the waiting list for anything remotely worth a damn was months long. I just went and pirated the thing instead.

        Has your experience been different?

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          9 months ago

          Hoopla has better availability but a worse app. Libby can have long wait lists but I just keep a queue going. There’s always a good list of available now audiobooks to keep me going until my holds are available.

        • Chestnut@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          The more you use the library the better it is. My partner reads almost a hundred books a year. She’s voracious. She reads them almost exclusively through the library. With Libby you’re able to juggle holds easily so that new books are always coming up when you finish the last one. If it comes back too early you just tell it to wait.

        • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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          9 months ago

          I particularly seem to be into stuff that my community isn’t feverishly trying to rent. That helps haha. Traditional paper books too, I could keep renewing them for a stupid amount of time because they didn’t end up on hold. Found out the limit was 255 renewals until they suddenly dropped it to like 10 max. :(

          But sadly all the good nerd stuff like R.A. Salvatore books or Discworld always has queues, yeah.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I can get almost anything from my library as long as it’s not the brand new hotness. Occasionally there’ll be a book here or a book there that’s got one person waiting in line, but our maximum checkout time is a week. I pull the book down rip the audio from it and free up my hold the same day.

          • M500@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            What tools do you use to rip the audio? I’m just wondering so I don’t accidentally do it.

            • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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              You could go as far as virtual audio cables and audacity. No matter what changes they can’t stop that.

              But if your library supports OD, go dig up the old PC app for OD. When you download the book to start listening to it it decrypts it as it throws it onto the drive.

              Some books seem to have some weird duplicated audio here and there is a coffee protection method. Like there’s some secret M3U somewhere that skips around when it plays it, but most stuff comes out clean.

              If you can’t get it to come out with the app use one of the virtual audio cable style applications wire the output into a line-in for audacity and just rerecord the whole thing compress it down. You lose individual chapters as files I don’t really pay attention to the chapters I’m on I care about the total distance to the book and being able to pick up where I left off. I suppose if you were trying to do some kind of hybrid read and listen back and forth it would be more useful to have the chapter numbers.

      • Alex@feddit.ro
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        9 months ago

        Fick libby, the company thatade it doesn’t care about its employees

    • capital@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Important info here. Definitely not the impression I got from the OP.

    • RouxBru@lemmy.world
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      So OP is complaining about being limited by the amount of free books OP can listen to? Sounds fair to me, these things cost money to make, and websites cost money to run.

      • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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        Oh man, I did the hard work (it was easy) of reading some rules and answering some questions via irc to get an invite to MAM and wow is that a treasure-trove of ebooks and audiobooks.

    • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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      Reading is hard when doing several hour long commutes… Audiobooks also can enhance the book as some are edited to cut out parts which really don’t contribute. A good editor can make or break a book. I do like reading, but there are times where audiobooks not only provide better experience, they are also the most time efficient as can be enjoyed during other tasks.

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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      See my other comment: https://lemmy.world/comment/7069535

      You’re making disingenuous assumptions when you say I listened to other audiobooks. I have only listened to this series. purchased 3, and listened to 2 of the free (premium) books. I did not listen to any other books. There were a couple times it skipped a chapter with an accidental scroll, and I had to scroll back, but I didn’t actually listen so it shouldn’t count.

      I wasn’t aware of the 15 hour limit but of course I am now as it’s been pointed out many times in this thread. I didn’t even know they had audiobooks until they started showing up on the opening screen of Spotify. I got hooked listening to the Steven Fry narrated OG book and then went to buy the next 3 and the last book in the series was also included in premium so I listened without buying. Still, 13 hours (which makes up for any skipping) is not 15 hours, so there’s either a bug or they intentionally count unlistened to skipped chapters as being listened to.

      I’m getting Libby setup today with my library card.

    • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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      You do realise this is a pirate community? The way yor comment reads, it seems like you dislike OP wanting free stuff.

      I am aware of people doing some mental gymnastics to justify piracy. But IMHO that is about the same difference as a pirate to a privateer. Just acknowledge that you want stuff without paying and hoist that black flag.

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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      9 months ago

      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.

      • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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        9 months ago

        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.

        • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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          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.

            • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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              9 months ago

              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.

  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    Tbh as a quick fix your local library almost certainly has this audio book. Finish your book then you can look into piracy.

    • tacosanonymous@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Sadly, that’s the case less and less these days. Distributors are forcing libraries to use digital resources and gouging them on prices.

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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      9 months ago

      You reminded me I do have major regional library card access, if they don’t expire after a couple years.

      • WarmSoda@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Pretty sure they don’t. If they do though it’s just a simple matter of showing them your ID.

    • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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      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)

    • Rusty@lemmy.ca
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      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

      • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        More often Hoopla than Libby for me in the SF Bay Area!

        Don’t look for/notice the physical CDs, even filter them out.

  • mvirts@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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.

  • littlecolt@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Saurok@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      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.

    • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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      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

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    9 months ago

    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.

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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      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.

      • ninjan@lemmy.mildgrim.com
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        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.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        9 months ago

        If this isn’t an unintended glitch that’s horse shit. I would cancel my account and tell them why.

        • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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          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

      • ffhein@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        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.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      Yeah, it’s weird, I thought they were just included with premium, no idea there was a listening limit.

    • 7u5k3n@lemmy.world
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      This is the way…

      Audiobookshelf is the tits

      Edit: It’s so straightforward my hygienist wife can use it.

      • Dran@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Are… hygienists famously known for not being smart? I don’t think that’s a thing lmao

        • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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          High gymnast? It’s ok my ex-wife is a tard and she’s a pilot now.

          Ow My Balls! plays in background

  • themakara@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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.

    • thes0ls@lemmy.eco.br
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      9 months ago

      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.

    • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Theres an iOS app too… only available via testflight, and I don’t recall where the link is… but its out there.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      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.

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      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.

  • steal_your_face@lemmy.ml
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    Fuck Spotify I would demand a refund then do a chargeback if they refuse. This is fucked.

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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      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.

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      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.

        • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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          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.

          • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            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.

        • Damage@slrpnk.net
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          9 months ago

          No, there’s lots of niche artists on Spotify, as well as old stuff

        • Mo5560@feddit.de
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          9 months ago

          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.

        • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
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          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

          • Hiro8811@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Me too but cache takes allot of space, if it gets over 5gb the app gets laggy and buggy

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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      9 months ago

      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.

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          9 months ago

          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.

          • WallEx@feddit.de
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            9 months ago

            They baught 3 audiobooks and premium … But sure, shill for spotify.

            • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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              9 months ago

              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.

                • Jako301@feddit.de
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                  9 months ago

                  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.

  • slampisko@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    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?

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      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.

  • solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    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

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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      9 months ago

      I already use ReadEra for all my documents needs. Does it save progress well with audiobooks?

      • solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        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

        • Cinner@lemmy.worldOPB
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          9 months ago

          That’s my fault, I messed up and said ebook a few times while meaning audiobooks.