WoT Audio Books - Why so expensive?

[graymen]

Long time reader but 1st time poster.

 

So, why are the audio books (CD) so expensive? Each book costs from $35 to $60. I saw one of the later books on Amazon for over $100. Am I looking in the wrong places?

 

Thanks!

[Guest cw]

Audiobooks always tend to run about double of what a hardcover will cost forthe same book.  It isn't just with the Wheel of Time.

 

Close to $100 doesn't sound right though as Barnes and Noble only wants around $60 for Knife of Dreams.  I was looking at the US pricing though.  If you are looking at Canadian pricing, you can like add another 30 to 35 dollars onto that.  While the Canadian dollar is roughly equal to the US right now, pricing was determined and set when it was worth significantly less.

[graymen]

I just remebered how to get them for free. The local library. Oh well, the question made me sign up for an account here.

[Darth_Andrea]

Actually if you wait long enought you can find the aduio cd sets unabridged on amazon.com through 3rd party dealers I got my new and factory sealed copy of Knife of Dreams for only $18.99 plus shipping that way and I am contining to watch the site for other such deals hehe.

 

 

The only exceptions are Path of Daggers and Winters Heart which currently aren't available on unabridged CD or Tape sets. Though you can download them from Audiable.com search for them by title and add the word Unabridged in the search string, since Audible and Amazon are linked you can search from either site to find it.

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]     

[slayerA]

Check out

 

http://www.audible.com

 

The first 3 months are 7.95, one book a month(the lowest plan), but that is less than 24 dollars for the first three books. About $160 for all 12 books  on this plan. Audible does have copy protection on the books but has downloads for iPods and mp3 players and you can use Nero(free)to burn the books to CD. PLUS, on the KOD book RJ gives an exclusive interview to Audible. He states he does not read his own books, but he does listen to see that the readers are getting the point of the books and makes corrections from that.

 

Michael Crammer who does the male POV is an awesome reader, love his Ogier voices. Kate Redding on the other hand has a little trouble with some names, but when she does Egeanin's Saenchan voice mocking Bayle in his Illian accent she pulls it off perfectly.

 

You can pick up all the books NS to KOD.

I also recommend other series-

 

The Song of Fire and Ice

Enders Game

Eragon

The Golden Compass (more like a play the author does the narration all other parts are read other people)

Magic Kingdom for Sale:Sold!

 

You can't find it on Audible.com, but listen to the Harry Potter on tape too, the guy who read that did over 200 different voices and won an award for his reading. He is so good that you can know which character is talking. Also look for the several versions LOTR and The Hobbit.

 

I should not say this but if you dirt poor you can find the all the WOT books minus KOD in one zip in a torrent file, but some the books are missing parts or get distortions. I think they were recorded from audio tapes to the PC and the tape player gets hosed up.

 

And Yes, I love audio books, can't fall asleep without them.

[Dragon21]

I would get them anywhere but in a bookstore. Barnes and Nobles and the like seem to always charge full retail, where as on amazon you can get much better deals. I got all the audio CD books available there, and never paid over $40.00, even though the list price was often $65-$85.

[Darth_Andrea]

Check out

 

http://www.audible.com

 

The first 3 months are 7.95, one book a month(the lowest plan), but that is less than 24 dollars for the first three books. About $160 for all 12 books  on this plan. Audible does have copy protection on the books but has downloads for iPods and mp3 players and you can use Nero(free)to burn the books to CD. PLUS, on the KOD book RJ gives an exclusive interview to Audible. He states he does not read his own books, but he does listen to see that the readers are getting the point of the books and makes corrections from that.

 

Michael Crammer who does the male POV is an awesome reader, love his Ogier voices. Kate Redding on the other hand has a little trouble with some names, but when she does Egeanin's Saenchan voice mocking Bayle in his Illian accent she pulls it off perfectly.

 

You can pick up all the books NS to KOD.

I also recommend other series-

 

The Song of Fire and Ice

Enders Game

Eragon

The Golden Compass (more like a play the author does the narration all other parts are read other people)

Magic Kingdom for Sale:Sold!

 

You can't find it on Audible.com, but listen to the Harry Potter on tape too, the guy who read that did over 200 different voices and won an award for his reading. He is so good that you can know which character is talking. Also look for the several versions LOTR and The Hobbit.

 

I should not say this but if you dirt poor you can find the all the WOT books minus KOD in one zip in a torrent file, but some the books are missing parts or get distortions. I think they were recorded from audio tapes to the PC and the tape player gets hosed up.

 

And Yes, I love audio books, can't fall asleep without them.

 

Actually the interview is on all the unabridged audio sets. At least the one's done by Kramer and Reading. I don't know whats holding up the rights for the cd sets of Path Of Daggers and Winters Heart from being released unabridged on cd or tape but they were supposed to have shipped this past fall and never did. I prefer to have the CD's myself because It's easier to keep track of no possiability of loseing them if the computer crashes and I don't have (and can't get out here in the sticks) highspeed internet and downloading those large books would take weeks at my best connection speed over the phone. 

 

As for the torrent file, well it's possiable that the glitches in the audio is from copying from CD, I tried to dupe my copys hopeing to keep my originals from getting used up and scratched and they all had glitches, sections that skipped or blanked out I think it's something to do with the copy protection on the disks. Copying them also seemed to change the pitch and tone of the voices a little enought that I noticed it anyway.

 

I still need Path of Daggers and Winters Heart to complete my collection and I might get them from Audiable if they don't release a cd set of each unabridged by years end. Audiable dose have versions to download that are burnable if I read their sight correctly. I'm not sure if it's a different file or what but it's there. I'll just have to go to my brothers and steal his computer and highspeed connection to get them lol.

 

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]       

[Shendare]

I feel compelled to add that I am quite appreciative of this thread.

 

I have been trying to find the time and motivation to open up the books for a re-read for half a year now (read 1-7 and part of 8 when it came out and nothing since), and can never seem to bring myself around to doing it.

 

However, I've now purchased the New Spring and Eye of the World audiobooks (via Amazon, though I didn't catch the third party trick and ended up paying $30-$38 each).

 

By taking the audio cd's and ripping them to 128kbit mp3's, I've been able to squeeze all of New Spring onto a single disc, and should be able to get Eye of the World on two discs, and they play on my car's stereo (go mp3 cd player!).

 

Sitting in Southern California traffic has never been so enjoyable. There is absolutely no stress or frustration since the longer I'm stuck in traffic, the more I get to hear the books. I also have a copy of the files on a flash drive I always take with me to work, so they can sometimes help my work day go by a little easier, too, but shhh!

 

I am one happy guy, and would never have seriously thought about getting the audiobooks if not for this thread really bringing it to the front of my mind.

 

If anyone really finds anything out about Path of Daggers and/or Winter's Heart, do post here and let us know. Like, can the Audible versions really be burned to CD (which means they could then be re-ripped to DRM-free mp3's), or are the rumors of iTunes availability really true?

[Guest The Thin Inn Keeper]

Seen a couple of threads about copying CDs to make backups.

 

If you're a Mac user I'd recommend ripping the disc with Mactheripper (this should remove all the protection) and then compressing using Handbrake. Both programs are available as freeware. Toast and Popcorn will also do the compression part for you.

[Dragon21]

I do the same thing, Shendare.

I have all the Audio CDs they make, and I constantly listen to them over and over at work or in th car. Ripping them to MP3 is definetly the way to go.  :)

[Darth_Andrea]

I feel compelled to add that I am quite appreciative of this thread.

 

I have been trying to find the time and motivation to open up the books for a re-read for half a year now (read 1-7 and part of 8 when it came out and nothing since), and can never seem to bring myself around to doing it.

 

However, I've now purchased the New Spring and Eye of the World audiobooks (via Amazon, though I didn't catch the third party trick and ended up paying $30-$38 each).

 

By taking the audio cd's and ripping them to 128kbit mp3's, I've been able to squeeze all of New Spring onto a single disc, and should be able to get Eye of the World on two discs, and they play on my car's stereo (go mp3 cd player!).

 

Sitting in Southern California traffic has never been so enjoyable. There is absolutely no stress or frustration since the longer I'm stuck in traffic, the more I get to hear the books. I also have a copy of the files on a flash drive I always take with me to work, so they can sometimes help my work day go by a little easier, too, but shhh!

 

I am one happy guy, and would never have seriously thought about getting the audiobooks if not for this thread really bringing it to the front of my mind.

 

If anyone really finds anything out about Path of Daggers and/or Winter's Heart, do post here and let us know. Like, can the Audible versions really be burned to CD (which means they could then be re-ripped to DRM-free mp3's), or are the rumors of iTunes availability really true?

 

 

Yeah when searching Amazon just click on New and Used from $* it will bring up a list of other vendors who are selling the same thing and many of those are never opened if you look at the descriptions closely enought. I got KOD that way and with shipping only paied $22 and change. It's always nice to find someone who under cuts Amazon's prices which I'll admit on many items are even cheaper than Walmart hehe.

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow] 

[Guest leebarr]

i check them out from the libary and download it to the computer

[42Bonzo88]

    For those of you who have never tried Audiobooks, I recommend them highly. I read all of the books first and I have TDR and KOD on Audio. I agree with RJ that you get a different perspective when listening. I wish they weren't so expensive, but they are worth it!

 

[glennergy1]

I also highly recommend the audio books, as purchased from audible.com.

I've read the series three times previous.  This time around, I'm listening through the audible downloads, and am definitely appreciating things in a different way.

 

With the audible plan, you can listen via your computer, or load the book files onto almost any MP3 player (be sure to confirm that your particular player works with them if this is important to you), or you can burn them to cd (and thus convert to MP3 if you want).  Once you "own" a copy of the audiobook, you own it forever, and as I understand it, can listen online from their website from anywhere as well, or re-download as much as you need to.  When I joined they had a deal -- 1 audiobook per month for $7.49 for 3 months.  Then it's $14.95 per month.  But you can also pay $22.95 per month for two credits.  And with each credit, you can download the entire unabridged copy of the book.  That's a great deal... I've so far downloaded 9 books, a total of around 280 hours of listening pleasure, and paid somewhere around $93.00 over the course of four months.  Guess that comes to around .33 / hour of listening...

 

The two I am missing are Path of Daggers, and Winter's Heart.  Audible carries Path of Daggers, but not Winter's Heart... not sure what the deal is on that.

 

They also have New Spring.

[graymen]

look at all these posts. not bad for my first post.

 

i ended up going to the library to checkout Eye of the World. I had to have them order it from another library. i did check out a Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy. it's pretty entertaining.

 

i bought the narnia series a few years back and loved it.

 

Audio books are great for the car.

[glennergy1]

One followup to my post.  After writing it, I emailed audible support, to ask about Winter's Heart.  Here is their response:

 

We are currently waiting on the new publisher (who acquired the rights to the title last year) to make an audio version of the book. Winter’s Heart, we were told will be available about the Fall of 2008.

[The Lost One]

Winter's Heart is available on audible.  I downloaded it quite a while ago.  Here is the link:

 

http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/enSearch/searchResults.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&N=0&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&D=Winter%27s+Heart&Dx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial&Ntk=S_Keywords&Ntt=Winter%27s+Heart

 

 

[ila5fw]

I started buying the unabridged CDs several years ago from Amazon.com.  Audio Renaissance who've published all the unabridged versions, released some of the books (not in order I might add!) then a while later, released some more.  I had all except CoS (which I think was subsequently released), POD and WH.  I got lucky on Ebay and managed to find a DVD with these three books on it (probably downloaded from Audible and ripped!)for £15 ($30) so my collection was complete.  I then bought KoD on audio only.  I'm in the process of putting them all on my Ipod and have a mini hifi in my bedroom and listen to them all the time, in sequence.  It's brilliant for getting me off to sleep, plus I just think I absorb the books better by listening to them - I certainly enjoy it and never get tired of listening. 

[Darth_Andrea]

The only problem I have with the audio books and it's a minor problem, is that Micheal Kramer and Kate Reading can't seem to remember how they pronounce a name from one book to another. The more unusual ones seanchan names for example or names of some citys seem to cause them problems. I do realize that it's months if not years between recording sessions but you would think a hundred or so hours in a recording studio take after take would burn something like that into your mind hehe.

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]               

[Shendare]

As I'm listening to Eye of the World after having listened to New Spring, I'm really hearing a difference from Michael Kramer. His inflection is much poorer in Eye of the World, he pauses for breath mid-sentence sometimes, and he seems to exhale audibly at the end of almost every sentence he reads, which gets a little irritating once you start noticing. He does still try to do different voices, at least.

 

He was probably pretty new with Eye of the World, and recorded New Spring after having gained experience reading aloud. I'm glad he got better by the time he got to New Spring. I hope I notice an improvement (i.e., not notice the problems) once I get to The Great Hunt, or even later on in Eye of the World.

[wotpsycho]

I got my dad to read the series back when I was in high school and when book 11 came out, he decided he needed to go through the series again, but he didn't have time to read them, so he bought them off Audible instead and ripped them to CDs to listen to in his car while driving to work.  He ended up having to buy the abridged CDs for book 8, since there wasn't an unabridged version.  When I finally got my iPod, I "borrowed" all of the books and put them on it, even converting the CDs to show up as one big audiobook within my iPod.  I just finished my 3rd time through the audiobooks, and I winced every time I had to listen to that horrible abridged version (I just can't make it through reading 8, so I've but up with it).  I now find out that book 8 actually was released last September...but since it was released right after RJs death, it didn't end up in any of the news sections of any major WoT site like I expected it to since book 7's release showed up in wotmania's news.  I'm so so so happy to finally have unabridged 8, gotta hurry through the series again!

 

And for those who don't know, listening to the entire series, including New Spring, on audiobook comes to about 345 hours, over 2 full weeks of listening.  Of course, I listen to them slightly sped up, since iPods allow that, so "only" 276 hours, 11.5 days...yay for multitasking!

[Shendare]

Good news! It looks like Macmillan Audio (formerly Audio Renaissance) has finally gotten their act together and scheduled the release of the Path of Daggers audiobook (unabridged).

 

This is the link on Amazon.com, offering pre-order for the scheduled release on September 17, 2008:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Path-Daggers-Book-Eight-Wheel/dp/1427205086/

 

No news yet on Winter's Heart, the only other missing audiobook from the lineup. I actually looked through Macmillan Audio's website and left a voicemail at their office inquiring about Winter's Heart, so we'll see if they return the call.

 

Four months is longer than I'd prefer to wait, but better late than never! And here's hoping Winter's Heart follows soon after.

[DemandredFO]

WH and PoD are available on audible now in unabridged formats and you can download and burn them to CDs or transfer them to iPod.

[Shendare]

Ah, of course, I didn't address that. I actually purchased a WoT book on Audible and started listening to it, and frankly I am rather appalled with the quality of the files.

 

I'm entirely sure they can be enjoyed by those who haven't heard the actual audio CD playback, or don't care, but when compared, the Audible versions sound like old cassette tapes being played from a room away, very... hollow. The audio CDs sound so much more rich and vibrant that I would rather wait for the CDs than purchase and listen to the Audible files.

 

For the technically inclined, the Audible mp3 files I listened to were recorded at 30-32kbps, and according to the Audible website, they undergo further "voice compression" beyond mp3 compression in order to get the small file sizes. The lowest quality setting I can rip off the audio CDs with Windows Media Player is 128kbps, four times the audio data quality, and the highest is 384!

 

I personally could not hear a noticeable difference between 128 and 384 kbps from CD. However, there is a huuuuuge difference between 128kbps from CD and 32kbps from Audible.

 

Unfortunately, I was unaware of the actual level of compression and quality from Audible when I signed up to get the rest of the WoT books (I actually scoured the entire website and extensive Q&A section and found absolutely no mention of actual kbps or downloadable mp3 samples to test from, and now I know why), and purchased a full 12-credit annual subscription. I see they have a wide selection of language learning and educational audio books, though, so I'll end up making use of the purchase somehow.

 

It probably sounds a little snobbish or pretentious, but if you've actually heard them both you would completely know what I'm talking about! I could probably put together a comparison between the two versions of a particular 60-second passage or something if anybody really wants to hear.

[Darth_Andrea]

Good news! It looks like Macmillan Audio (formerly Audio Renaissance) has finally gotten their act together and scheduled the release of the Path of Daggers audiobook (unabridged).

 

This is the link on Amazon.com, offering pre-order for the scheduled release on September 17, 2008:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Path-Daggers-Book-Eight-Wheel/dp/1427205086/

 

No news yet on Winter's Heart, the only other missing audiobook from the lineup. I actually looked through Macmillan Audio's website and left a voicemail at their office inquiring about Winter's Heart, so we'll see if they return the call.

 

Four months is longer than I'd prefer to wait, but better late than never! And here's hoping Winter's Heart follows soon after.

 

 

YAY!!!! I had to download it from Audiable but now I can finaly fill the spaces in on my shelf.

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]