I'm working on a digital detox — stopping using digital services run by those supporting the fascist regime in the US. I don't want to financially contribute, or be counted as acquiescing, to the techbro billionaires' agenda.

One of the hardest platforms to separate myself from has been Audible.

I joined in its very early days, even having conversations with founder Don Katz (who is a lovely guy).

I listen to a lot of audiobooks for work, and for leisure, so over that span of more than 25 years, my Audible library has grown to over 1000 titles, and my wishlist has over 500.

Sadly, Audible got bought out a long time ago by Amazon, and so is included in my digital detox now because of Jeff Bezos' actions in supporting Trump, his actions against journalistic freedom at the Washington Post, and Amazon's problematic business practices.

So, I had to figure out how to protect my existing audiobooks, and how to buy and listen to audiobooks in future.

Exporting data about my Audible library and wishlist

I used an open source browser extension Audible Library Extractor to end up with .csv files of both my library and wishlist.

It extracts this data from the Audible website while you're logged in, and then cleverly uses the Google Books API to try to add back the ISBN data (Amazon of course doesn't use the standard ISBNs, it uses its own proprietary numbers 🙄).

My hope in future is to be able to import these lists into another audiobook service to be able to mark books in my Audible library as 'already owned' so I don't accidentally buy them again (and don't key getting marketed about them), and mark books in my wishlist as 'want to buy' (so I then DO get marketed them!)

But for now it just acts as a spreadsheet where I can check from time to time what to buy or what I have.

Exporting my audiobooks

I wanted to create a personal backup of the audiobooks I've already bought, and to then be able to listen to them without being logged into Amazon owned apps.

To do this I used OpenAudible, which retrieved them from Audible's API, and saved them on my laptop's hard drive.

A new player for my audiobooks

I want to be able to listen to the personal backup of my audiobooks on my mobile.

For this I settled on the open source mobile app BookPlayer. It's free for nearly all features, but you can pay for a pro level to support it, which I've done.

A new place to buy audiobooks

I've been searching around for where to buy audiobooks from in future:

• Spiracle: A nice independent service, but expensive for digital audiobooks unless you get them in a membership plan — and then your choice is very limited
• Everand: This is a brand of Scribd, offering ebooks and audiobooks. But I found it had a very limited catalogue. I searched for a few titles I want to read and it didn't have any.
• LibroFM: An ethically-minded audiobook service, which makes a contribution to local bookshops too, like bookshop.org. Another big win is the audiobooks are DRM-free. They're a bit more expensive with membership, but I'd live with that for no DRM. However any books you buy outside of your membership credits are crazily expensive. I like that they have a section where they promote banned books' which seems to include titles the Trump regime is trying to remove from public libraries in the US. (referral link, may earn me a free audiobook eventually if used!)
• OverDrive (Libby): An app that enables you to borrow audiobooks via your membership of a local library. While it's free, I've heard that it's generally not easy to get the book you want when you want it, and you have to reserve and wait.
• Spotify: They offer a lot of audibooks, but with a limited number of listening hours per month in your membership. And besides I'm leaving Spotify as part of my Digital Detox!
• Storytel: You pay a monthly subscription and can access all the audiobooks in their collection. However, a search of titles I want to listen to next drew a lot of blanks, so their collection seems limited.
• XigXag: This is a new kid on the block, a small indie company — and it's British! This was recommended to me on Bluesky by Hilary Hall from DCMS who have supported them. There's no membership, but the price decreases over time based on how many audiobooks you buy in a year, plus the price is a very reasonable £7.99 per title. Main downside is you can't download the titles to desktop to back them up in anyway, so you're relying on this company always being around to be able to access your purchases. That's concering for me, given how many audiobooks I buy. Another downside for me is they don't have an Apple Watch app, or any plans for one, because they develop their app on a non-native platform. I listen to my audiobooks at times when I don't want to have my phone with me.
  

Based on this research I'm going to try out XigXag, and see if I can mitigate my concerns about backups, and how much of a problem it is to have to listen from my phone. I've emailed the founders of XigXag with some feedback.

I'm also going to try out LibroFM, and have taken their initial offer of 3 credits for price of 1. I'm attracted by their DRM-free approach, and they have an Apple Watch app for listening.

I'll also experiment with Libby in the near future.

Result

I've now paused my Audible subscription (with expectation of cancelling it before 90 days pause is up), and already bought my first audiobook from XigXag.

Digital Detox step: Done!