Alright, look. I love the public library. Books on CD are incredible. I like to rip them and listen to them in my car. (I used to listen to the CDs, but my new-to-me Prius’s CD player isn’t working.)
But now I’m trying out Audible.com. Here’s what it gives me:
- Listen-anywhere (any device)
- n-second rewind (compared to totally unacceptable full-chapter restart)
My use case presently is this: Listen to an Audible.com book on my phone via bluetooth to my car during my commute. When I get home at night, say, “Alexa, play Audible.” My Echo Dot picks up where I left off listening to that book in the car. This is a killer combination for me.
Biggest drawbacks of ripped CD audio books are:
- Have to rip it. Not too big a deal because I can do these in bulk. These are usually purchased (used) audio CDs. I rip them and later donate them to the library.
- Have to sync it to my iPhone. This is hassle city for me as I seldom sync my iPhone. Totally unnecessary step for me (compared to Audible) and I really dislike doing this.
- No Echo Dot playing at home. So, what, I have to use headphones at home? Not going to do that.
- Biggest problem: Hitting the << button in iOS’s Music app on my iPhone 6S goes back to the beginning of that track. WTF. No way. Not cool. I want a ten-second rewind feature, period. This is the biggest killer for me and what’s leading me to Audible. Well, maybe it’s tied with the “play anywhere” thing with Echo Dot support.
12 October 2017 Update: Still going strong with Audible.com. I love it. I pay about $22/mo for two credits and I have six credits accumulated. I frequently buy the daily deal book and use Audible every week at home and when commuting. I really like it.