A long, long ago when cord-cutting first became a thing, we dreamed of all-emcompassing apps that would break the shackles of cable companies and the like, giving us great savings while we watched and listened to the content we wanted to. Little did we know that the future we dreamed of would turn into a nickel-and-dime nightmare where everything we might possibly enjoy doing would be yet another subscription we'd need to pay for. Let's take Spotify's new audiobook tier, which costs $10 monthly to get 15 hours' worth of audiobooks.
That's right, a whole 15 hours of listening to audiobooks per month for $10 monthly. Crazy right? Well, we sure hope you aren't turning the page to sign up for it because we've got a cheaper alternative with unlimited hours of listening to both audiobooks and podcasts for you after the break. This is one page you definitely should turn to if you were actually considering paying for Spotify's offering.
Get More For Less
The better alternative is Amazon's Audible, which costs $7.99 monthly for unlimited audiobook or podcast listening hours. That's right; you'll be able to listen to someone read that Stephen King book to you or perhaps catch up on the latest sports podcast whenever and however many times you feel necessary because, well, you can listen as much or as little as you like—all the while saving $2 every month over Spotify's miserly offering.
Why Spotify? Why?
Well, there's a word for it and its called Greed. However, ineptitude or disregard could also work in this instance. Greed, as in milking its customers for every last cent, ineptitude for offering a poor product, or disregarding how the customers might want to use the product. None of which are good.
At best, fifteen hours of audiobook listening will let you listen to a couple of full-length audiobooks from Spotify's library of over 200,000 titles, which isn't much and certainly isn't worth $9.99 monthly.
Read: How to quickly cancel Spotify Premium
But Wait…
If you sign up for the Premium tier for $11 monthly you'll get that same 15 hours of audiobook listening plus unlimited hours for ad-free music and podcasts. Crazy, right? And that's where Spotify beats Amazon's Audible if you want to listen to audiobooks occasionally. If you are more serious about your audiobook habits, Audible is still the best option.
For audiobook lovers, Spotify isn't a match for Audible regardless of whichever plan you pay for as they are all limited to 15 hours of playback for that format.
It's unclear why Spotify limits its audiobooks to a mere 15 hours of playback each month although if I was to put on my cynical hat I might think that it's something to do with the payment of royalties. That's purely speculative on my part though and I'm sure Spotify might suggest a different reason.
If 15 hours of playback is more than enough for you, then it's probably a better deal to pay the $11 monthly fee so you get unlimited, ad-free music bundled in as well. If you love listening to audiobooks while commuting to work and back, you should probably go for Audible instead. Regardless of your preference, you really shouldn't sign up for Spotify's $9.99 audiobook-only plan. Really.
