How Scribd’s new unlimited audiobook service stacks up against Audible and Kindle Unlimited

There are a number of different ways to access your favorite piece of literature in 2014, via iBooks from Apple on your iPad or iPhone, Kindle, Nook or just visiting your local library.

Today, digital book service Scribd has announced that it has added more than 30,000 audiobooks to its library at no extra charge. Scribd already offers more than half a million books as a part of its service, which is available for $8.99/month. In addition to adding a number of popular titles with support for audio playback, Scribd has commissioned some of the most popular voices on earth to read these stories.

In its announcement post, Scribd proudly declares that readers will be able to hear some of their favorite stories read to them by a number of classic voices. A few examples include, Meryl Streep & Blythe Danner reading John Cheever, Henry Rollins reading Elmore Leonard. Additionally, Rosamund Pike reading The Spy Who Loved Me, and Allison Janney reading James Grippando. Scribd promises that more titles are on the way, as well.

But how does this new feature compare to some of the other big names in the digital publishing world? Book distributing giant Amazon offers two options, with its own Kindle Unlimited and Audible services. Both differ from Scribd in terms of available content, with Kindle Unlimited offering “thousands of audio books” in addition to its 700,000 titles for just $1 more per month.

Audible subscribers get access to roughly 150,000 titles, although only one book can be listened to per month. A subscription to this service runs $14.95 a month after the initial free 30-day trial. New Kindle Unlimited subscribers are going to be able to pick up a 90-day trial to Audible, however to get the best of both worlds you’ll be looking at an investment of nearly $25/month after that.

This brings us back to Scribd, with a greater selection than Kindle Unlimited but a fraction of Audible, you can have access to a pretty good library of titles for less of a monthly commitment. The reality is no one is going to be able to fully enjoy all of the books available from any of these services, so it comes down to personal preference. Each of these companies offer prospective users a free trial of varying durations and we highly recommend taking advantage of those prior to making a commitment. From strictly an accessibility stand point, nearly everyone in this market offers coverage on the majority of popular consumer devices. If you’ve got an iOS device, you are pretty well covered in this department.

Drop us a comment below and let us know how you are doing the majority of your reading right now.

From Scribd:

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