Ask HN: Where do you guys find audiobooks?
52 comments
·July 18, 2025caitlinface
Don't forget to check out Libby. Plug in your library card and you can check out audiobooks for free.
Crisco
I purchase my audiobooks from libro.fm. It’s like Audible where you subscribe and get a credit every month, but part of the profit goes to support local book stores, and the books are DRM free.
jdgoesmarching
This right here. The ability to download actual MP3s from books you’ve purchased is a miracle in 2025. Plus, sending some change to your local bookstore is better than sending it to Amazon.
kaggie
100%. My workflow is purchase DRM free audiobooks from libro.fm, put it in my selfhosted audiobookshelf folder, and listen anywhere. Libby is a first choice actually as well if you have a library card.
flkiwi
libro.fm is great. I happily subscribe to them because it's all so effortless.
Probably worth noting as an aside that bookshop.org is sometimes mentioned as a libro.fm-like Amazon alternative for ebooks (NOT audiobooks), but my brief experiment with them was awful: they were much, much more restrictive than even Amazon, at least before Amazon's removal of file download.
navanchauhan
If you want to sail the high seas, MyAnonaMouse is one of the best private trackers.
If you want a public tracker, I’ve heard good things about Audiobookbay
zevon
I've also heared good things of this island called Audiobookbay (and there's also this useful service called Bugmenot where you can find all sorts of login credentials...)
And even if it's a bit of a hassle, I always check if there is an option to buy books/audiobooks as directly as possible from the author (in some cases you can buy content directly on the author's website, for example).
silverquiet
I was going to post this - I just joined this week, but have a friend who has sourced audiobooks from it that I couldn't find any other way so it looks good so far. Their emphasis on friendliness is nice too and seems genuine.
malshe
I used to get them from Audible and my collection has more than 400 audiobooks. However, I realized that I rarely listen to a book twice so buying audiobooks wasn't the best use of my money. Then I discovered Libby and Hoopla thanks to HN. Now I borrow audiobooks from my city library.
amelius
Perhaps an interesting thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Annas_Archive/comments/1ehcqc1/anna...
entropie
I made a telegram bot for my mother that downloads yt videos and extracts the audio and makes it available to her via jellyfin from my homeserver. She downloaded way over 1tb in a year.
Once every few month I transfer everything to an SD kart and hand it to her.
So: youtube is pretty full of audiobooks also very recent ones - and shes only searching for german ones.
barbazoo
I’m jealous, I wish my mum was into tech more so I could build stuff for her. But she’s a luddite :) Good for you.
nickthegreek
if your mum can use netflix, she can use jellyfin.
barbazoo
She doesn't use Netflix. Probably could if she learned but doesn't think she can.
stevenfoster
I try to support writers directly. eg. You can purchase Paul Millerd's Pathless path on his gumroad page and it comes with both the ebook and audiobook: https://pathless.gumroad.com/l/pathlesspath
Tanbooks also sells mp3s of their audiobooks directly on their website. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle changed my life profoundly for the better. https://tanbooks.com
ROBERT_TABLES
I download epub files and then have ElevenLabs read it to me using AI generated voices I created/cloned using its built in tool. I prefer this method because I can have a book narrated to me using any voice I want to. For example, I’m currently listening to the foundation novels but having it narrated by an AI clone of Lou Lobell’s voice since she narrates the tv show. You can also export narrations as mp3 files and listen to them however you want.
nickthegreek
What is the average cost of using elevenlabs for that? they have great voices, but I would have assumed this would have been cost prohibitive.
jasonjmcghee
If you do it through their iOS app it's completely free.
malshe
Where do you get DRM-free epub files?
kwk1
Perhaps not what you're looking for but there's plenty worth reading here for me: https://standardebooks.org/
gadders
Libby: Source is local library Spotify Premium: You get a certain number of free hours per month BBC Sounds: Worst app of the lot, but they do have audio books
I wish all of these apps implemented a "Default Sleep Mode" between, say, 10pm and 7am so if you press play it defaults to only playing for 30 mins. Podcast Republic has this.
derwiki
IIUC you’re asking for a sleep timer? If so, built-in timer on iOS can “stop playing” instead of an alarm sound. Not sure about Android.
TheAceOfHearts
One suggestion that hasn't been mentioned yet is YouTube. Sometimes even books that don't have an official audiobook recording might have a random video of someone reading it.
jihadjihad
Like others mentioned, your library + Libby is a great resource, especially if you're in a major metro. I moved away from a major metro and kind of miss how rich the selection for materials was (I was spoiled!). It's not bad where I'm at now, but any major city should have a great selection, and using Libby is easy.
ungawatkt
Downpour, most audiobooks are drm free and they have an audible-like subscription thing.
In the process of digital detox, I am able to acquire a used iPod. Trying to find good quality downloadable audiobooks for me. I have some luck with using some torrents, but not enough audiobooks are there, at lease the genre I am interested in. What are your sources? How do you get them?
TA.