Edit: A couple times I’ve said eBook while I actually meant Audiobook. I’ve learned that Spotify has a 15 hour limit per month for their free ‘included in premium’ audiobooks. However these are the two books I listened to for free, and even rounding up to 13 hours it doesn’t make sense, unless they count accidental chapter skips which weren’t actually listened to. But it’s clear now that I know about the 15 hour limit, that they are not counting the time listening to paid audiobooks.

First book I listened to for free:

Second book I listened to for free:

OG post:

I purchased 3 eBooks in the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series (2 came free) and I’m on the final book. 20 minutes left in the last book and this is what Spotify tells me.

I’m over the edge now. I’ve been putting it off too long. I have a nice NUC I purchased about a year ago.

I’m tech inclined, 20 years of hobbyism, know the linux command line well. Work in IT consulting. But I’m busy. Very busy, and unmotivated to do things like hours of research and toying with settings getting things to work, if I ever have the time.

But this is the start of my new personal revolution.

I’ll read the wiki and have read about Sonarr, etc, and I also want movies and shows, but is there anything specifically for eBooks? Looks like Readarr is my best bet? Stripping the DRM of already purchased (and free with Spotify ‘Premium’) books to share on a seedbox is also something I’m willing to take requests on. Is there a way to rip from Spotify if you have a premium account? And what’s the best Android eBook reader (the last 3-4 I tried sucked with pirated eBooks)?

I know I’m sounding like a noob asking everything to be handed to me right now, but I am willing to put in the research and welcome and highly appreciate anyone with tips to point me in the right directions.

  • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
    53·
    9 months ago

    How is it shitty in this case? That’s literally what OP bought, the right to listen to any book in Spotify’s catalog for free, for a certain number of hours. If they wanted to listen to a specific book unlimited they should have purchased that book directly.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
        81·
        9 months ago

        They haven’t bought anything though. Or rather, they got exactly what they paid for, listening time.

        I’m pretty sure this is a concept OP must’ve seen before, they can’t be that clueless. If you borrow a book from the library you don’t own it, and you have to be done with it by the time it’s due.

        At this point I’m not sure if they’re just new to audiobooks or if they’re misrepresenting Spotify’s time-limited plans on purpose.

        • WallEx@feddit.deEnglish
          38·
          9 months ago

          They baught 3 audiobooks and premium … But sure, shill for spotify.

          • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
            5·
            9 months ago

            They bought one book, the others were free with time limit.

            If Spotify misrepresented the free books or was unclear about what they represent then by all means, they should be called out. But it’s a bit different from what OP has complained about.

              • Jako301@feddit.deEnglish
                3·
                9 months ago

                Premium is pretty much only for music, the audio book part is more like a free demo. Including them in the normal premium sub is unsustainable.

                • WallEx@feddit.deEnglish
                  1·
                  9 months ago

                  I geht the first part, but how would that be unsustainable? The cost of streaming audio is next to nothing compared to almost any other media, yet it costs the same or more then netflix, yt premium and the likes

                  • Jako301@feddit.deEnglish
                    1·
                    9 months ago

                    This isn’t about server costs or infrastructure, but rather about licensing rights and artist payments.

                    Spotify pays 70% of its revenue to artists and despite that most of them are still severely underpaid compared to their listening times. They could pay artists 5-10% more I’d they give up all profit they make, but that’s about it. You already pay artists less than 1ct per song, if that’s still too much or not is for you to decide.

                    Youtube Premium works cause they pay creators even less while showering every non-premium watcher with ads every 5 minutes.

                    Netflix has an entirely different business model. They only pay an initial license fee for a finished series. The artists/studio already got paid, the price negotiations is purely between Netflix and a few big publishers. Due to that they can calculate if a series will bring in a profit and only then decide to buy the license for a period of time. Due to that their offer, while it may seem large, is just a tiny fraction compared to Spotify or YouTube.

                    Now to Spotifys books. I’m not sure what their exact business model is, but either they buy the license for the books or they allow others to sell their books directly on their platform. Whatever it is, its a huge increase in costs for them. Either Spotify has the big upfront license cost that they try to get back by gaining new customers or premium allows you to “rent” a book which means Spotify still has to pay the creator even if you didn’t pay them anything.

                    Taking the extra money from the already existing premium subscription won’t work. Artists are already underpaid, reducing that even further will lead to them leaving Spotify.