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.

  • lemmyingly@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    I stopped paying when they started serving adverts in 2020. Why am I paying a subscription fee to be served adverts? Especially during a period where I was only listening to a few hours per week. Fck dat greedy piggies.

    • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      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
          0·
          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
            0·
            9 months ago

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

            • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
              0·
              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
                  0·
                  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.

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Why does anyone use shitify

      Virtually every single song in the world in your pocket for a little over 10 euros a month doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me. Then again why does anyone use spotify for anything other than listening to music, there your guess is as good as mine.

        • Mo5560@feddit.deEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          I hate Spotify (I have to preface with this sentence)

          But plenty of artists these days don’t bother releasing CDs and MP3s and you can legitimately only stream their songs.

          I know small artists who were unable to send me the files of their own songs when I asked them. They just sent me a YouTube link and told me to listen there.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    If the experience that a paying customer gets is worse than the experience they get from pirating, then that’s the fault of the company selling that enshitified experience.

    It’s wild how modern businesses are trying to kill themselves with every terrible idea they have to make more money.

    • Localhorst86@feddit.deEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      I bought a few books off audible, and while I can still access them even without a subscription, I still have them converted to mp3 on my NAS, in case I ever lose access to audible for some reason.

      • elvith@feddit.deEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        Have you found a way to split those mp3s into several files by chapter etc.? All converters that I have tried so far just yield a single, several hours long mp3…

        • abbadon420@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          I always used SmartAudiobookPlayer (android). It saves your progress nicely. Never felt the need for chapters

          • elvith@feddit.deEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            I use Voice audiobook player, that can do that, too. But when I switch devices, … it’s easier to pick up where I left, if it’s at least separated by chapters (or as some MP3 CDs do every 3-5 minutes a new track).

            Also I do sometimes buy mp3 audiobooks for a blind friend who prefers to listen to them on a CD player (buttons can be felt and its easier to use than a touch screen). But a single, several hours long mp3 is bad in this scenario. And as i didnt find a tool to split them easily, Audible exclusives were out of the question…

    • Zahille7@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      As shitty as Amazon is, I will say that the books I’ve gotten through Audible are all still there and I can listen to them whenever I want even though I don’t have a subscription or anything anymore.

      • w3dd1e@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        Audible replaced a version of a book my boyfriend bought with a completely different version of the same book. I mean a different narrator and everything. He had purchased the book a few years earlier but he didn’t manage to get a refund from them.

        • Stupidmanager@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          The Martian by Andy weir was my first experience of this. They re-recorded it with will wheaton and I “lost” my original with RC Bray. Though I will admit my version was part of the plus catalog, I still didn’t get a choice.

  • abbadon420@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    It’s no too hard. You could do it over a weekend if you’re technically inclined like you say.

    My tip: set it up on a clean pc (or nas or pi or whatever you’re gonna use), don’t use your old pc that still has all your files and stuff. I just booted up my old pc, that I hadn’t cleaned and got the whole arr suite and plex set up for my local network. It all works, but now that I want to open it up to the outside, I realize that have to first clean my pc. That pretty much means starting over.

    • TheBiscuitLout@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Can you recommend a distro for being a media server? I too have been complacent about my media habits, and the time has come to sort it out.

      • Mixel@feddit.deEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        Depends on your use case I guess. I personally use unraid for my server which works fine but if you don’t want to pay anything and have a good experience choose Ubuntu server or Debian (since they are the most supported and stable) but I have no clue about that either, theoretically you can do it on every distro