Audiobooks.com, a one-year old subscription service that competes with Amazon’s Audible.com, is today dropping its prices. Previously, the company had charged users $24.95 per month for unlimited access to its catalog of some 25,000 titles. Now it’s offering two plans to cater to perhaps less voracious listeners, with plans starting at $14.95 per month instead.
The lower cost option offers users access to one title, either a classic or bestseller, which they can stream from their PC, tablet or smartphone. For $22.95, they can listen to up to two books per month. The company says the changes were based on analysis of its users’ behavior – that is, the majority were only listening to one or two titles per month as it was. Additionally, the company is hoping that in making the service more affordable, it will attract casual readers who may not have seen the value in the pricier unlimited option.
This change also put Audiobooks.com in closer competition with Audible.com, as it’s now priced the same for one or two books per month. Audible actually starts off with an introductory price of $7.49 per month for one book, but this is a limited-time option for the first three months. Audiobooks also has a teaser offer of its own – a free seven-day trial.
Audible’s service offers more tiers to cater to heavier readers, but more importantly for users attempting to choose between the two, it’s also home to a larger catalog – over 100,000 titles to Audiobooks’ 25,000+. Audible’s app works on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and of course, Kindle, while Audiobooks is iOS- or Android-only. Both services allow users the ability to keep all purchased titles when membership is canceled, but Audible allows you to burn books to CD, and Audiobooks does not. Audiobooks does offer streaming, while Audible is focused on downloadable titles instead.
At the end of the day, it comes down to user experience, which is where Audiobooks is hoping to win. Some users may prefer the look and feel of Audiobooks mobile apps over Audible’s, for example. Audiobooks also touts its proprietary cloudmark sync technology, which allows users to pick up listening at the same spot when moving between devices. But Amazon’s service has a nifty sync feature of its own – Whispersync for Voice, which allows users to switch between the Kindle edition (text version) and the Audible version. Today, over 15,000 titles are Whispersync-enabled.
Interested users can test out Audiobooks.com for free, after signing up here.