what's the easiest way to gift an audiobook to a friend?

October 13, 2023 6:25 AM

My friend is terribly sick. I want to send her something comforting. When I was sick, audiobooks helped me a lot. Once I ascertain if she would like me to, how can I send her audiobooks in the lowest-barriers possible way?

Obviously I'll ask her if she already has an audiobooks service installed and if so I'll look for ways to send purchased items to that service. But if not, what's the best way to do it?

(For myself, I tried subscribing to Amazon's service ("Audible") the other day and found it awful, the base membership didn't include anything I'd want to hear, and the interface didn't work either. I currently use Libby and borrow stuff from libraries -- I don't love Libby but it more or less works and it's free. But that won't help for the current need.)

posted by fingersandtoes to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Audible is probably the easiest option. The membership is really more like just buying a book each month vs a Netflix model. But it is really easy to gift individual books to another person, and they won't need to be a member to listen to them.

If you could offer to set up Libby for them, and maybe make a curated list of your favorites that are easily available to borrow (not in current high demand), then that might also be nice.
posted by bizzyb at 6:51 AM on October 13, 2023 [3 favorites]

I find the options on Audible kind of paralyzing so I actually prefer the Library options of Libby and Hoopla. It's nice because you can just browse around and choose books, magazines, movies, music etc. depending on your mood. I also find that Hoopla often has books available that are waitlisted in the Libby app...so it's really nice to have both. That said...I do think that Audible is the easiest way to gift someone an audiobook.
posted by victoriab at 7:10 AM on October 13, 2023

Audible’s catalogue is really big, but their model can be confusing. Your monthly membership fee gets you a ‘credit’ which you use to buy a book, and the ‘included with membership’ ones are extra bonus content that you can get without spending another credit. I’m pretty sure you can gift people credits if they have Audible. Also Spotify now gives you 15 hours of audiobook listening a month with premium membership, and there’s the option to buy more hours (9.99 for another 15 hours I think, also a confusing way to do things), so maybe Spotify gift card could be an option if your friend doesn’t use audible? You can still buy audiobooks as CDs, but they’re expensive and most people don’t have CD players - if money isn’t a problem you could send a CD walkman and a few CD audiobooks.
posted by chives at 7:11 AM on October 13, 2023

Libro.fm is awesome for audiobooks
Chirpbooks.com has some good deals
Both the Apple Store and the Google play store sell audiobooks and so does Barnes and Noble. If one of these is her current setup, they should all take gift cards.
posted by soelo at 7:14 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I’d vote for LibroFM. When she sets up an account (if she doesn’t have one) she can select a local bookstore that it will benefit.
posted by samthemander at 8:07 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oh, also. One year I gave my dad not just a monetary subscription to an audible service, but also a list of 15 books that my husband and I had read and loved, with a few short words of description for each book. This was harder to put together but will make it easier for her to choose a book! My dad loved it and read at least 10 of the books we recommended (NB he is retired).
posted by samthemander at 8:09 AM on October 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: To give books you choose, Audible is great. You pick the book and pay for it. It doesn't require the person on the other end to do a monthly subscription or navigate the Audible catalog themselves; they get the gift notification via e-mail and click to listen. (They probably do need to create a free account.) I've both given and received books this way.

I've received an audiobook gift in a similar way from libro.fm, which also worked the same way. It appears to be an indie bookstore conglomerate to allow audiobook purchases.
posted by mark k at 8:47 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: if they are in the Apple ecosystem, it is super easy to buy someone a book (ebook or audiobook) in the Books app.
posted by zippy at 7:17 PM on October 13, 2023