Why I like Libro.fm

Libro.fm is a website that sells audiobooks. It’s genuinely that simple!

The big thing that’s important to me about Libro.fm is that it sells DRM free audiobooks. Once you buy a book from Libro.fm, you download it and now you have an audiobook file. It’s yours! They are literally incapable of rescinding your access to it.

Of course, if you lose the file (maybe your computer breaks - I’d suggest backing it up!), you can redownload it from Libro.fm through your account. At that point they would have the capacity to deny you re-accessing it. But as long as you keep the file you downloaded after your first purchase, there is nothing that any provider, any company, can do to stop you listening to it.

When we compare to Audible, the 800 pound gorilla in the audiobook space, that’s a big difference. Your access to your Audible purchases are subject to ongoing access to your Audible account. If Amazon decides that you shouldn’t have access anymore, then they take your library of books with it. There are workarounds for this, but they have varying levels of technical difficulty and illegality. And that latter part is important - there are several circumstances where you having reasonable access to your own product that you purchased will make you a criminal. And I’m not talking about pirating books - I’m talking about removing DRM (Digital Rights Management: in many jurisdictions, the act of removing the locks that stop you from keeping your own books, even with no piracy involved, is illegal, which is its own travesty).

Those reasons are important, but they’re also the negative ones. Libro.fm is important because it doesn’t force you into the Faustian bargains that Audible does.

But it’s also just a good service! You buy a book and you receive it. That’s the big value - you get to listen to audiobooks, which is probably why you’re looking at an audiobook store at all! There are a variety of independent bookstores that you can choose as your “sponsored” store when purchasing - so they receive a portion of your sale. This can help you keep physical stores going, with the variety of preservation initiatives and desirable real-world spaces that they create.

It also has a subscription if you want to do that instead of buying the books individually. It doles out tokens that you can use to buy the books instead. I’m not as familiar with how this works since I don’t use it.

Another important thing about the books being DRM free is that it means I own my library separate from the store. If Amazon comes along and buys Libro.fm and folds it into Audible, that would suck, but I would already have my books. I could find another DRM free audiobook seller like Downpour and the books I buy there become part of that same ongoing library I already had!