Everyone loves a good Criterion Collection or Shout Factory release. But what’s a good website from which to buy digital media? Do you buy digital media? Or do you just buy physical and rip? Or do you just sail the seas?
Games seem to be itch.io or Steam, maybe a Humble Bundle or Epic/GOG exclusive here and there. But what about movies and music? What about books and audiobooks?
I feel kind of shitty about it, but I use Audible for my audiobooks. They might be mediocre for authors, but you can’t beat the ceiling their credit system puts on the cost per book, and I buy too many to afford anything else.
(Check your library with hoopla or Libby if you’re in the US, though. Odds are there’s a lot available.)
I used to use Scribd/Everand as an extra library of books, but they’ve switched to a credit system where you get credits a month to “own”, but only while you have an active subscription, so fuck them.
You should check out libro.fm. They do the monthly credit like audible, but their downloads are DRM free and you can pick a local bookstore that they will contribute to.
That does seem reasonable, especially for most who don’t buy as many books as I do.
It would add up to a decent amount more money for me personally as often as I buy bulk credits, though.
I just think we’ve let the mega corps like Amazon undercut every aspect of our lives. I’d rather give money to my locally owned bookstore than fund another spaceship for billionaires.
I definitely won’t criticize. It seems like a reasonable option for a lot of people.
From my perspective, if I had an unlimited budget I’d be buying hundreds of books a year. I don’t do that for obvious reasons, but 20% less books to support a smaller business is a pretty big sacrifice.
That’s what led me to this. I quit Audible a few months back, planning to just buy more media outright. But they offered me a “come back and pay $0.99 for the first three months!” and I’m not really saying “no” to basically giving them Amazon’s money. (Though for the holidays they’ve apparently upped the offer to that plus a $20 credit.) So I thought this would be a good general question as I look for more ways to support creators directly, after taking their money runs out.
Good mention of Libby, too. A coworker recommended that to me, so I’ve got it now as well. Sadly my local selection isn’t great for audiobooks. But it does make me want to get an ereader more.
Bandcamp looks to be a good way to buy music though, as someone mentioned. But I can’t find any good way to buy digital copies of movies/TV. It’s all pretty platform locked, it seems.
I’ve only done a small handful of my library, but you can rip your books from Audible.
I don’t really like any of the ways to manage them though.
Fun tip for audible, you can basically do that cancel trick forever.
Agree wholeheartedly on all points. Plus I wish their player was better, but I can work around that through aax2mp3 and use my preferred player.