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Barnes & Noble Review: Audiobook Downloads and Rentals |
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Rating: |
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| Good selection, often cheaper than iTunes, but checkout, download, and audio are disappointing | |
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Barnes & Noble has long been a mainstay in the world of books. About a year ago they made their foray into the online audiobook market with Barnes & Noble MP3 Books. Like iTunes, it's an à la carte service, so no subscription is required to download an audiobook. Instead you pay per title, giving you more flexibility and less commitment, although it ups the price, particularly for those who listen to one book per month.
The Barnes & Noble MP3 bookstore boasts a little over 12,000 titles. More than eMusic, but less than iTunes, its closest competitor. Still the two services have a great deal of parity when it comes to the hottest titles. Barnes & Noble stocks Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, and Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design. However, you won't find J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books as well as the popular teen blood-sucker, Twilight. The good news is that many of the titles at Barnes & Noble are often $3.00 to $5.00 cheaper. Customers browse through audiobooks using the Barnes & Noble website. It's well organized and nicely laid out. Audio samples are included as are ratings and plenty of customer reviews (at least for bestsellers). But things get a little more complicated, and a bit arduous when it comes to actually getting your audiobook. Barnes & Noble has not streamlined the checkout system, so each purchase takes a good three clicks. After that you have to wait for an emailed link which sends you back to the website. Click this link and you'll almost be ready to download your audiobook. We say "almost" because downloading your Barnes & Noble MP3 books requires a specialized application called the OverDrive Media Consul. It will also transfer your purchase to your favorite MP3 player. The ODM Consul is not bad, but it's not the best, especially since you'll probably only use it with Barnes & Noble. You can transfer your purchases to iTunes after download, but already that's a lot of steps. We like that Barnes & Noble distributes MP3 files that are free of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and are compatible with any and all MP3 players (iPods and iPhones included). As for audio quality, it's not the best. The sampling rate is 22khz, which is half that of a CD, meaning lower quality. While listening with some high-quality headphones we could discern a good deal of crackling in the voice of our narrator and a certain thinness in sound during moments that involved music. This may not bother everyone, but we noticed. So, what's the verdict? Barnes & Noble's MP3 store is not going to save you money if you listen to at least one audiobook every month. But if pay-per-download is your thing, you can save some cash by looking for your titles on Barnes & Noble, though you might not love the sound quality or the checkout process. Sign up for Barnes & Noble | Compare to Other Audiobook Plans |
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| Price: | Cost varies: $0.82-$62.95 |
| Free Trial or Discount: | None |
| Rent or Download: | Download: 1 title per purchase |
| Upgrade Plans: | Same as others purchased |
| Library Details: | 12,000+ download titles |
| Devices Supported: | Any MP3-compatible device |
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