Special Feature: An Honest Review of Libro.fm
I love audiobooks. They have been a godsend to me in more than one way, as I frequently have trouble setting aside the time to read outside of my day job, and as an autistic person who needs some audio stimulation but can sometimes find music a bit over-stimulating, they have become essential to me.
And like many, for years my platform of choice was Audible, more out of convenience if anything. I know, I know, we want to avoid supporting Amazon as much as possible, I don’t have an excuse. It was the recent announcement that Audible would be pivoting more to AI-narration that gave me the push I needed to look for an alternative.
Out of all the various Audible competitors, Libro.fm was the one I found most recommended. What appealed most was that it partners with independent bookshops, so when you sign up you can choose one to which a portion of the proceeds of your purchases go. Luckily my local indie was on there, so I didn’t have to worry about which to choose.
In terms of ethics, Libro.fm wins over Audible easily, although in fairness it is not difficult to be more ethical than Amazon. In the rest of this review, I am judging on three main criteria: range of audiobooks available, app user-friendliness, and price/value for money.
My only complaint with regard to range is that some books I wanted were Audible exclusive, but I am going to take that as motivation to buy the physical books instead (from my local indie bookshop, of course).
App user-friendliness, on the other hand, is where we start to run into issues. I do not find it as intuitive as the Audible app, and initially I struggled to locate my wishlist. The search function also needs improvement, as when I tried to search by title, I frequently returned unrelated or no results. I had much better luck searching by author name, then viewing books under that name. It would also benefit from a language filter, as much as I welcome translation of as many books as possible, I am unfortunately only able to listen in English. You also can’t see what language a particular book is in until you select it from the search and view its information.
On a positive note, one feature I really like on Libro.fm is the presence of curated collections. The bookshops in partnership with Libro.fm are able to create collections themselves, and there are more I believe created by Libro staff. If I were to view a book by, for example, Stephen Graham Jones, I can see it’s featured in these horror collections, or that collection of books by indigenous authors. I’ve found collections created by the staff of small bookshops on the other side of the world. It’s a fantastic tool for discovery, especially as when I would attempt to browse generally on Audible, I would get the same recommendations coming up again and again.
Lastly, the price. And this one will be enough to put some people off. Membership starts at £7.99 for one credit per month, while I have taken the £14.95 for two credits a month. Outside of subscription, extra credits are priced at £12 each, and there is no bundle discount. If your listening habits are anything like mine, this makes it significantly more expensive than Audible.
Luckily for me, a sale came up that included a lot of books on my wishlist, and a few weeks later there was a BOGO deal, so I was able to stock up fairly cheaply. Of course, there’s no guarantee of this being a regular occurrence, so I am trying to slow down my audiobook consumption so as not to burn through them too quickly.
Overall, I do recommend Libro.fm, but I acknowledge that it will not be right for everyone at this point in time. I hope it continues to grow and improve its service, and in the meantime a free alternative is Libby, if your local library offers it. Another audiobook platform used by libraries is Borrowbox, so if you are on a budget it is worth looking around.
By Dai Baddley
