If you want to download audiobooks from Audible, Kobo, or Libro,fm, you are often stuck with their proprietary web players or apps. What if you have your audiobook collection and want a great way to organize or host them for offline or online listening, like what Plex is for movies and television shows? Luckily, there are many popular software that people employ who are in the know, and here are the best ones.
Kodi Audiobooks
Kodi is an open-sourced and free app that can manage your local library TV series, movies, pictures, music, audiobooks, and other files. Kodi provides a platform to hold all your files, so it is easy to see that Kodi is widely compatible. It supports most file types and formats. However, Kodi is not universal. If you are an Audible listener, you might find that Kodi does not support Audible audiobooks in AA/AAX format. Audiobooks using the .m4b or .mka format and contain two or more chapters are natively handled in Kodi without the need for additional add-ons or unique setup.
However, some plugins on their internal Wiki provide links to downloads and exactly what you must do to import them and get started.
Audiobook Shelf
This service is a self-hosted audiobook and podcast server; it is sort of like Plex. It is meant to house your audiobook collection and relies on Android or iOS apps, but it does support a Windows Docker Server. It keeps progress per user and syncs across devices. Fetch metadata and cover art from several sources and has a chapter editor and chapter lookup.
OpenAudible
OpenAudible is developed and maintained by a dedicated team of enthusiasts committed to making the audiobook experience seamless and enjoyable for all users. Since its inception, thousands of people around the world have trusted OpenAudible. At its core, OpenAudible is a powerful software solution designed to help users manage their audiobook library, download audiobooks, and convert audiobooks into different formats. It works on Linux, PC, and Mac.
This service connects to your Audible account and converts the downloaded file into more compatible with other audio players. OpenAudible can read and import your library automatically. It connects to the Amazon/Audible web browser and never saves your username or password. It’s important to note that the developers and staff cannot access your login credentials. The audio files are converted from AAX files to M4B or MP3.
Prologue
Prologue is a great plugin that ties into your Plex account. It allows you to self-manage your audiobook collection and listen to it on any other computer on your network, whether online or offline. You can stream your audiobook collection from anywhere worldwide and never lose your place: Prologue remembers the playback position across all audiobooks, synced via iCloud.
It has some exciting features, such as Voice boost, which equalizes voices and boosts volume for loud environments, and custom sleep timers to stop playback at a specific time, after a particular duration, or at the end of the chapter. It is also compatible with the Apple Watch, CarPlay, and Siri. They also have a dedicated standalone app for iOS. If you build “collections” in Plex (think: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc.), they will show up as Collections in the app.
The reviews for this app are all glowing; the design, functionality, and features were created by someone who loves audiobooks. Everyone on Reddit and other social communities loves it because most are longtime Plex users who enjoy being able to listen to their audiobooks now.
Libation
Libation is a free, open-source audio library manager for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It lets you decrypt, back up, organize, and search your Audible library. It is a glorified pirate app that connects to Audible, strips the DRM, and allows you to save it to your Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. Many people use it, but it is only available on GitHub.
Many people use this app for various computers because they fear Audible will remove audiobooks they purchased because of a rights dispute or because Audible or the publisher will remove them for multiple reasons. When you buy an audiobook from Audible, it is not yours forever; you are just listening to it, like e-books.
Special Mentions
Audiobook Builder makes it easy to turn audio CDs and files into audiobooks for your iPhone, iPad, or other Apple devices. Join audio, create enhanced chapter stops, adjust quality settings, and let Audiobook Builder handle the rest. When it finishes you get one or a few audiobook tracks in Books, Music, or iTunes instead of hundreds or even thousands of music tracks! Audiobook CD’s aren’t popular anymore due to streaming and services like Audible. You can find them for really cheap now.
AudiobookSuite is an easy-to-use solution for your local audiobook playback and organization. Whereas traditional media players treat audiobooks as an afterthought at best, AudiobookSuite was built for audiobooks from the start. AudiobookSuite imports your library from disk without any additional work. Put in the paths you want to be scanned for files, then watch the program do the rest. Multiple related audio files should automatically be sorted into the same audiobook that can then be played back in full, even if it consists of hundreds of files. The goal is a plug-and-play interface for your local audiobook library.
Hoopla, Libby and Cloud Library are apps designed by the companies who distribute audiobooks to the public library. Technically all of the apps from Android, iOS or a webplayer for any internet browser are free for patrons, but cost libraries a boatload. The vast majority of libraries in Canada and the US use one of these, or often two of them. Libraries in Europe primarily use Overdrive Libby to power their collections, since most patrons are using smartphones now, instead of computers to listen to audiobooks.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
