[Closed] Why are Audiobooks so expensive?

There another level of production, ontop of the books production.. a narrator/producer/editing and no doubt more, why wouldn't it cost more? I have no doubt popular narrator cost more, again why wouldn't them?

Just sign up for the monthly credit, £8 a month, and watch for the 2-1 sales/books on offer.

Having someone read out an entire book, and someone else listening through and editing it all is how many hours work?
Never heard of Bernard, is he similar level of famousness to Stephen Fry who does the english HP books?

Also IIRC JKR is particular about the audio books being word for word accurate, as some people like to use them to learn a foreign language and like to have book and audio together.

Apparently the phrase "Harry pocketed it" occurs in every book as Fry really struggled to pronounce it in the first one and Rowling subsequently put it in every sequel just to annoy him.

I guess there's a production team to pay as well. Sometimes you can buy the e-book then add on audio narration afterwards for less than just buying the audio. I pay an audible sub, I can't see me stopping anytime soon as I love them. Currently on the latest Rivers of London book...

It'll be priced to the market rather than cost of production. There will be a upper price point that maximises profit without the sales numbers dropping off, similarly there will be a price at which dropping below it doesn't generate any more sales. It's somebodies job to know what these are and adjust them as necessary.

"Yes, I can hear you Clem Fandango"

You're paying for the "voice", the studio time, the production crew...Harry Potter is narrated by Stephen Fry isn't it? I doubt he comes cheap.

Philosopher's Stone sold 4 million copies of the physical book in the UK. I bet it's nowhere near that number for audiobook downloads.

....but balance that with there is no cost of paper, printing, distribution.
I suspect the price is more about nudging you onto a subscription.

Also IIRC JKR is particular about the audio books being word for word accurate, as some people like to use them to learn a foreign language and like to have book and audio together.

That's how I am using them and it's not word perfect - very close, but odd sentences missing here and there - which given how quickly it is narrated it quite confusing as you have fractions of a second to relocate yourself when he skips a bit.

I suspect the price is more about nudging you onto a subscription.

Well you have to pay £7.99 or whatever it is just to have an account to then buy the books. Although I've downloaded OpenAudible so I can just rip them all to mp3.

Harry Potter is narrated by Stephen Fry isn’t it?

In English, I'm listening to the French version, the narrator of which died in 2010 (Bernard Giraudeau).

Having someone read out an entire book, and someone else listening through and editing it all is how many hours work?

A hell of a lot less hours than writing / editing the book in the first place though.....

It’ll be priced to the market rather than cost of production.

This.

Well you have to pay £7.99 or whatever it is just to have an account to then buy the books.

My Audible acct comes with a credit every month, so whatever the list price of the book, I can buy it for the price of my sub - £7.99 I can also buy (say)  3 credits for £18.00, and again regardless of the list price I can buy it with a credit. so £6.00, which is less than the cost of paperback

My Audible acct comes with a credit every month,

I think I have that, only been using it a week and looks like I'll get through a book every fortnight at the current rate....

Yeah, I've always thought Audiobooks were far too expensive. I love listening to them and (like a lot of people I guess) I have far more time for listening than I do for reading.

But can't bring myself to spend £15 on them when the paperback is £6. If the audiobook was £6-8 I'd probably buy loads. I guess people must be buying them.

An NFT market for audiobook downloads that you could then sell on would be great.

….but balance that with there is no cost of paper, printing, distribution.
I suspect the price is more about nudging you onto a subscription.

To be perfectly honest even at full price they’re cheaper now than they were when you were buying them on tape or CD.

I love an audio book I do!

Check out your local library. Most likely they will use overdrive/libby which allows you to download/borrow from online.

How strange! Once you log in, all their prices suddenly reduce, making it much more comparable to buying a paperback....

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I love an audio book I do!

I've only read audio books for the last year - worked my way through all of Hachette's Lire Francais Facile series (gave away the A1 books)...

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Not let loose on 'proper' books....

If the audiobook was £6-8 I’d probably buy loads. I guess people must be buying them.

If you buy enough they are a lot cheaper than £6-8.

I buy an annual subscription of 24 books for £110 a year - you just get 24 credits and use them as you need. That's £4.53 a book. Then when they are finished I buy (as a member) 3 credits for £13. Or the 2 for 1 offers too.....you can use them together so £13 can get you 6 books sometimes if you get lucky and there is enough stuff in the offer you want to listen to.

Also, as a member you get access to their audible plus catalogue for free. I've listened to 20-30 of those over the last 6 months in addition to my books bought with credits. Finding something you really want to listen to is sometimes a bit harder but still plenty of options.

My only frustration is my self imposed rule of never spending money/credits books shorter that 8hrs for vfm reasons. There are a few shorter novels that are sat on my wish list I've not bought because I'm tight.

Whispersync is awesome too but that gets proper spendy as you have to but the Kindle version and then the audiobook at a heavy discount. I struggle to justify that too often. As an none audible member if might be cheaper sometimes to do that then buy the audiobook outright.

My only frustration is my self imposed rule of never spending money/credits books shorter that 8hrs for vfm reasons

I'm waiting for my credit this month to buy Dominic Sandbrook's "Who Dares Wins" At 42 hours, I'd consider it to be reasonable VFM 🤣

I’ve only read audio books for the last year

Don't you mean you've "listened to"..?
If you could read you would buy normal books 😛

If you could read you would buy normal books 😛

I can read better than I can listen - I can only follow the Harry Potter with the text - the audio is just too fast and he just dances over the words - barely pronouncing any of them. For some reason I find it much harder to follow than French Radio - might just be him. The Hachette books were very slowly paced so I had plenty of time to look at the grammar and go 'oh look that's the Gerund etc'. This is just survival mode (at the moment).

French weather forecasts are fun - they hammer through all the regions in a few seconds - it's like listening to machine gun fire but having to clearly pick out each shot....

It's not because it takes ages and that there's a lot of production cost.

It's a voice actor in a studio for a few days. And the cost of distribution is near zero (like all digital costs of distribution).

It's because they a) can and b) some will pay it and c) it forces people to look at subscriptions - which is where they want you.

Capitalism isn't about driving down costs, it's about driving up profit.

Librivox is pretty cool - some are great, some are awful - but it's a great project:

https://librivox.org/

I remember this cropping up when the Harry potter books were in cd.

Some one was ranting that the audio book for say the Goblet of Fire was £80

I pointed out that:

1. It was over 20 cds which then isn’t bad per disc

2. I knew this as we had borrowed it for free from the local library

I’m sure the Potter audiobooks have made big dosh but in general I suspect that it’s hard to make money on lots of books as it’s another fixed cost for a smallish market

BBC sounds some times has books for free

A hell of a lot less hours than writing / editing the book in the first place though…..

Indeed. My missus writes books - it might take her 6 months from planning to submitting the final draft to the publisher. The audiobook can be produced in a week.

Price wise - audiobooks sell fewer units so are priced higher to help the publisher recoup their cost - plus there's VAT on audiobooks.

Isn't it more to do with the fact that the audio book is the orignal RRP direct from the publisher, whereas the books have been sold on in bulk and it's 3rd party resellers knocking them out at whatever price they want when they want to clear stock?

i.e if you went direct to the publisher to buy the book it'd probably still be at RRP, even a long time after first published.
Publisher can control the price of the audio book, but not the book once they've flogged it on.

Currently on the latest Rivers of London book

Ooh didn’t know there was a new one out 🙂

Don’t you mean you’ve “listened to”..?
If you could read you would buy normal books 😛

Ahhh, I was a prolific reader of books but as I got older I found that working with computers got hard on my eyes so switched over to audible.

Conversely music is sold at the same price no matter how expensive or cheap it was to make - the prices for songs are all the same whether they're recorded round a campfire or giving it the full Sgt Peppers. - a recording of a Harry Styles  pop song with all its associated production costs, publishing rights and performance rights only costs about 99p as an MP3 - if you buy a cover version of the same song by some bunch of unknowns its 99p, if you buy an instrumental cover version of the same song, for karaoke, so you have to  sing the words yourself (and therefore do half the work) .. is still 99p . But the sheet music for the same song, so that you have to provide all your own instruments and do all the singing and playing yourself -  sold as a PDF is £4.75. 🙂

I might have missed this so sorry if it was posted above, but if you only want audible books now and again, or just a few specific books then sign up, get a book a month on the monthly credit thing, then you can cancel the subscription but you still get to keep and listen to any of the books you bought either as cash purchases, or with subscription credits even though you aren't an active member.

I'm still listening to books I purchased about 6 years ago and haven't really had active membership for the last 4 years apart from the odd month when I maybe want a new book, then I just cancel again.

And also remember if you get a book and it's crap, eg you don't like the narrator, too short, any reason you can return it and get the credit refunded

EDIT
To answer the original question, Hmm maybe I'm the reason audible is so expensive!! Although I was actually saying it's not expensive really if you do the subscription method (which is cheaper than purchasing as a one off) and can keep the books forever even when you aren't a member..probably similar cost to buying a book in a shop

And also remember if you get a book and it’s crap, eg you don’t like the narrator, too short, any reason you can return it and get the credit refunded

Reminds me I was reading about this in the Sunday Times maybe, apparently you can listen to the whole thing and still return it up to 6 months later and get a full refund. Authors are up in arms about it understandably!

EDIT
To answer the original question, Hmm maybe I’m the reason audible is so expensive!! Although I was actually saying it’s not expensive really if you do the subscription method (which is cheaper than purchasing as a one off) and can keep the books forever even when you aren’t a member..probably similar cost to buying a book in a shop

Does look their pricing is very different for subscribers - seems to be £6.99 for everything. I'm very new to Audible so my browser was showing me prices not logged in - which are much higher....

I don't mind paying for stuff, just my mental price limit is about £10 a book. Above that and I feel I'm being ripped off.

I’m waiting for my credit this month to buy Dominic Sandbrook’s “Who Dares Wins” At 42 hours, I’d consider it to be reasonable VFM

56 hours 52 minutes!

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Les-Miserables-Lintegrale-Audiobook/B01KO4ZODE

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B004FTH6DG?source_code=ASSORAP0511160007

The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich

57hr 11mins

Got to confess is was a tough gig.

Currently powering (stuttering) my way through the 60hrs 4mins of War and Peace. I'm not sure it'll ever end. A freebie on Audible plus too.

Listen to War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Louise Maude - translator, Aylmer Maude - translator on Audible. https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B095V27YSS?source_code=ASSORAP0511160007

My Mrs goes through loads of audiobooks free through the local library. You have a limited time to listen.

Plus if you leave you get reduced offers, I'm on my 3rd four months for £4.99.
Get to the end, rinse and repeat, I just listen to something already in my library till they mail me an offer.

Not ideal, but for occasional use, it’s possible to have Sirion an iPhone/iPad read any book or document in iBooks, but the voice-style might be off-putting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/1s1oy1/lpt_how_to_get_siri_to_read_you_any_ebook_or_pdf/

“Yes, I can hear you Clem Fandango”

And just like that - I read the rest of the threaaaaad in toasts voice - damn you ray bloody purchase!