WTF in re: Audiobook Pricing
Won't someone please explain the logic behind audiobook pricing to me? Books on CD seem to run $17-$30 a pop, even for books that are out in paperback at prices in the $6-$8 range. The CDs themselves are inexpensive to produce, the packaging simply isn't that pricey... and unlike a music CD, you're only going to listen to a recorded book once or twice.
Is the voice talent that pricey? Are the divisions that price and sell these things dumping grounds for retards, so they can't do more serious damage in other departments ? Are people buying lots of these even at those prices? Seriously, I want to know.
Comments
I pay it because of convenience -- I have a 136 mile round trip commute and audiobooks are the the only way I stay well-read (or well listened, anyway) and sane (or relatively less insane). I think it maybe the actors, studio time, directors, sound engineers, etc that make it more expensive than printing, but what do I know? I'm commuting 136 miles!
That's a lot of commuting, to be sure. I used to go an hour each way (though, through L.A. traffic, that was only about 25 miles each way), and listened to a fair amoung of Shakespeare on CD, but I got those from the local library.
Do you re-sell your audiobooks, or just spend a lot of money on them?
I wonder if there's a market for inexpensively produced audio recordings of public-domain works distributed via MP3.
Two reasons for high priced Audio Books.
1) The Talent - Yes, it's that expensive in many cases because of all the people involved and especially the "famous" actor reading. And I can kind of understand this having worked in the music industry/recording studio side of things...bad talent record bad books.
2) Book companies, much like record companies, have been raping customers for years when it wasn't so cheap, so when the costs started plummeting, they just started making more profit. Sad but true.
I short circuit all of this by using the public library. There is a location around the corner from my office, you can check out up to 75 at a time, and at least in my area it's the most amazing, high tech online system you can imagine. You create a list of "wants" online, they email when the books are availble, you go in and they have them on a shelf waiting for you by the door, they use RFID to check out instantly without that pesky human interaction thing and you're out the door!
Best of all, it's FREE!!!
I have listened to HUNDREDS of books on my commute!
You should check it out. (no pun intended)
Geo
The Glendale library is pretty decent overall (very good online system for making requests from any library in the Glendale or Pasadena system), but they have a very limited selection of audiobooks, and much of their selection is a fundraiser section for the Friends of the Library orgainzation, which charges $1/week for those titles. So, if you want to listen to books, it's disappointing.
A good library, though, is truly an awesome thing.
I buy mine in MP3 format when I buy and I buy through an audible.com membership (so even the listed prices there don't apply to me). Buying produced CD sets of audiobooks? Waaaay out of my price range. Like you, I've often wondered who does buy them at those prices. Is it like published prices for hotel rooms, which most people don't actually pay? I don't know.
Voice talent makes a huge difference, the key being *talent* and not necessarily a name. Kate and I listened to Inkheart together as read by Lynn Redgrave and she was fantastic. Same for Wolf Brother with Ian McKellen reading. Just fantastic. But Brendan Fraser reading the Inkheart sequel, Inkspell? The sample was so deplorably awful Kate told me not to bother to buy it. Sad.
I hadn't checked out Audible for a long time. It looks like a pretty good deal if you listen to a modest number of books a year.
Though actually, I'd consider the lowest tier of membership to get a This American Life podcast.