Audiobooks discussion

Anybody tried this service? I just joined today here is what I found out after searching around and talking to a customer service rep:
1. no sync if you want to read a book or listen to a book across devices you must add it to each device which also means no place holders on multiple devices.
2. audiobooks are not able to be found on the app or played on the app so far.
3. You must be connected to the internet to use the service, you can not stream offline at this time.
4. the apps page turn takes way to long once you try to turn the page.
5. its expensive at 9.95 per month and in Beta where nothing works as it should.

Good thing is if they get their act together ( they can't tell me when things will be fixed or when they will come out of Beta) its unlimited books and audio.

I have one month free service so I will update on any changes that I find. :)

What is the selection like?
Kindle Unlimted is about that price per month - but it mostly has self-published fics and some old backlist stuff. It's selection is degrading as times goes on. Obviously, publishers & authors aren't finding it worth it - which makes me wonder about this service.

I just looked it up online, and it sounds like it's really difficult to cancel your membership and there were a ton of complaints about the company continuing to charge the credit card long after the fact.

Then other complaints about htem claiming to have titles they didn't actually offer.

So, I'm very interested to hear how you end up liking it Chakara!
Maybe there wa some sort of site bug with cancelations or that their library hs improved...

Melanti wrote: "I just looked it up online, and it sounds like it's really difficult to cancel your membership and there were a ton of complaints about the company continuing to charge the credit card long after t..."


Their library has a lot of major titles I have downloaded a cassandra clare book ( I say downloaded but from my understanding you can't use the app offline) a douglas adams book and a brandon mull book.

They are missing some authors that I like but I really like urban fantasy . From what I have been seeing review wise they were out of beta but from what I have viewed today they are back in beta or they never left and it was a lie.

Audiobooks seems to have major titles as well but as I said you can't sync between devices, get audiobooks on the app etc.

Also their reader is slow.

So Ill say so far I'm not liking it very much.

i had only seen the reviews of it on youtube and of course those people are getting paid to advertise for them or a kick back from getting people to sign up using the link.

update: they still have not fixed those problems and I don't think they will do so anytime soon. That being said its basically only a ebook subscription for about 10 USD that doesn't sync so you can use it on either one device or on your computer but not both unless you want to try to remember your exact place each time. Overdrive is free so if i want an ebook I can just get it from there.

So yes this subscription is being canceled ASAP.

Thanks for sharing, Chakara.

Specs wrote: "Thanks for sharing, Chakara."

no prob. :)

I got an email today from Audiofile advertising this service. I appreciate being able to check it out here. I'm not interested in something I can only use while streaming.

I got the same email Robin and thought it was spam at first. I also came directly here to check it out. It doesn't sound appealing if streaming is the only option.

I assume you also need to give them your credit card number of you want the free books for December?

I've used Playster for a month and my only complaint is on billing - if you use a credit card and then change to another card you can NEVER go back to the first card for billing! its the dumbest thing i've ever heard.
as for the books - I found many I didn't find on overdrive, and have listened to about 4 from them this month - on my asus tablet and my dell desktop.
I manually synced - but that was ok -it's a nit
but I found no problems with the player.
I plan to keep the service at this point.
especially because they have no rules like scribd had on the number and types of books you could read a month
I also found more books there than I did on hoopla

Paris (kerbytejas) wrote: "I've used Playster for a month and my only complaint is on billing - if you use a credit card and then change to another card you can NEVER go back to the first card for billing! its the dumbest th..."

Thanks Paris, I have a couple of questions if you dont mind?

What is the minimum monthly fee?
Can you actually download the books onto your Asus?

With Audible its 14.95 minimum spend for one book a month but you can download it and keep it forever. I think this may be they key differentiator?

Appreciate your help!

@ Ace
hi, sorry it took me so ling to get back to you
I only selected the audio books so I pay less than 10.00 a month with tax etc
I don't know if you can download to table as I stream - it works really nicely for me -
I have found for my tastes they have a good selection of books. After being a former scribd user - I can say at this time they have no limit to the number of books you can select, or listen to in a month.

I would suggest you try the 30 day fee option ( but pick the right credit card - my error) - or go out and search for the authors or types of book you would listen to and see if it fits your needs

Happy holidays

Before you sign up with Playster, you might want to read through this thread on the Kindle author's forum Kboards. There is a problem with Playster in that it lets scam sites link to books that Playster doesn't have rights to. Some authors are seeing books on the Playster site that Playster doesn't have rights to.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topi...

Any recent reviews of Plaster? I like the pricing. Anyone with more recent feedback?

Hi - I subscribed for a couple of months. I was actually able to download the books onto my iphone (I otherwise would not have subscribed.) I ended up cancelling the subscription after I had some trouble - they cancelled my subscription without telling me why (it turned out my card had been compromised and my bank had cancelled it ALSO without telling me why, which made me grumpy).

I didn't renew the subscription after that. I found it did not have as many titles available as audible - basically, recent bestsellers , lots of fluffy romances, very little sci fi, not much non-fiction that interested me. So I basically ran through in two months most of what interested me and then I couldn't find anything I wanted!

I haven't had any problems with them continuing to charge my credit card - but that might be because I never gave them a new one after the early one was yanked by my bank.

I must be lucky - I have been with playster for 6 months - having no problems. I only use the audiobooks.

as for billing, there is a foreign transaction fee each month - I think I pay 9 dollars total.

I find many of the books that I enjoy reading - mystery/thriller/suspense - some current, some older

needless to say I'm happy and haven't heard any negative info from authors until now

I just reviewed the supplied link - and see no 2017 comments - maybe the site is out of beta and is now legit???

I've been listening and reading with Playster for a couple months. So far I like it. I feel like I'm more free in my listening choices because I'm not limited to just 1 book per month.
I've found some great new authors and started on their entire series list. So I love it for that.

My only concern is as an author. I'm self-publishing and I haven't been able to find any clear information on their publishing terms. I know they do work with self-published authors, but there's just not enough information on it for me to feel comfortable.

This is where I found the UK audiobook version of a fantasy author that I really like. We have a different pricing for my country which is less than USD$5 monthly all in with unlimited streaming/downloads. Because of the price, I signed up. For now, I'm satisfied with their audiobook collection as it has the fantasy authors that I liked. Their Customer service is a winner.

The downside? The app is buggy, sometimes it logs me out. The Search function needs improvement.

I must admit that at this point, Audible wins over Playster. But their price and limitation of one book/month makes me cringe. If Audible changes its pricing and goes back to unli download, Ill switch asap.

I do have issues with the widget on my phone. It will log me out or freezer. But if I download the book first it works better.

Toasha wrote: "I do have issues with the widget on my phone. It will log me out or freezer. But if I download the book first it works better."

I haven't had that issue - I stream vs downloading the books

I live in the middle of nowhere. Streaming is not an option :)
But I wish it was.

Chakara wrote: "Anybody tried this service? I just joined today here is what I found out after searching around and talking to a customer service rep:
1. no sync if you want to read a book or listen to a book acro..."

Try http://booklits.papertrell.com/audio/all. Search for an audiobook you want and email me (Steve@Hummingbirddm.com) and I'll send you a 40% off coupon. (limited time offer)

I’m really enjoying it, great selection, and the price system is way better than Audible. For Murakami fans, for exemple, it’s perfect, there’s almost everything. But the search engine is not good, lots of room for improvement.

those that are using the service can you now sync between devices?

I use the bookmark and when I use another device it sees the bookmark - but that's the only way I know of

here's a link to the George R R Martin audiobooks on playster

https://play.playster.com/audiobooks/...

Is playster just a website or does it have an app?

Tacey Raye wrote: "Is playster just a website or does it have an app?"

It has an app that can be downloaded

No Jodi Taylor - so I'm stuck with *! Audible.

I've been using Playster and loving it. It has greatly improved in the last year. HOWEVER, just last Tuesday I noticed that the books marked as Premium show up as being available when I am not logged on, but as soon as I log on they do not show up any more. I am a Premium audiobooks member. Is this happening to anyone else?

I used to have playster and loved it - but when they made the plan change I wasn't so happy so I went back to scribd.
scribd is working for me at this time

Thanks. I looked up scribd and it looks good. I signed up for the free trial.

I just went and took a look at the website to see how they're doing and if there's been any improvements. Apparently, now its the price of audible per month for the audiobook service and almost 40 USD for the unlimited with books, audio, music, etc. Maybe if they have a lot of good shows and you want one subscription that has it all it might be worth it. But to me, scribd seems to win when it comes to audiobook subscriptions that don't allow you to "own" the books. I'd rather pay 8.99 to have access to a library over 14.95.