Free Audio Book Downloads - The best places to get free and discount audio books

One of the best sources out there for free audio books is your local library. With the growing popularity of audio books, most libraries are starting to include them in their lending materials. And if your library subscribes to either NetLibrary or OverDrive, you will be able to download free audio books.

The most common audio books carried by libraries are current and past bestsellers. So if this is what you are looking for then your best bet is to check out your library. Be sure to look into programs such as inter-library loans and bookmobiles to increase your selection and convenience.

There is a vast storehouse of intellectual property known as the public domain out there. Since no one holds a copyright to these works, anyone can do anything they want with it.

Fortunately some folks have turned some of the books into audio books and are making them available for free.

Librivox is the big boy of public domain sites for free audio books. Their goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. While they are not quite there yet (keep in mind that there are about 85 million books in the public domain), they are making great strides.

Literal Systems is another public domain site that as dedicated to audio books. Their selection may not be as large as Librivox's but they have some great titles and are definately worth checking out.

Project Gutenberg is the Grandaddy of public domain sites. Their main focus is providing free ebooks of public domain material. However they do have some free audio books available as well. You can find human-read ones here and computer-generated ones here.

So if you are looking to whittle down that list of classical literature that you always said you would read, like the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Poe, Austen, Carroll, Aesop, Defoe and so many more, then head on over to the above sites and get to it!

Once upon a time, families used to sit around the radio and listen to programs the same way modern families sit around the TV watching programs. There were radio dramas (similar to movies) and radio serials (kind of like sitcoms) and they were extremely popular during the 30's and 40's. In fact many of the more popular radio programs like Dragnet, The Lone Ranger and Gunsmoke were made into TV programs when that media started to edge out the radio in terms of popularity.

Thankfully, those radio programs have not been lost. They are in fact freely available at places like Old Time Radio, Radio Lovers and Mercury Theatre.

Mercury Theatre is the site that is dedicated to making available all of the broadcasts of the Mercury Theatre on the Air. This is the program founded in part by Orson Welles and was responsible for airing the radio program War of the Worlds which lead to mass panic and had listeners believing that Earth was being invaded by aliens. Now you can listen to it too!

Moving back into this century, PodioBooks is a great place to find free contemporary audio books. Most of the works are from newer authors hoping to get more exposure and have made their work available as audio books for free.

You can sign up and get a new chapter of the works you want sent to you on a schedule of your choosing, or you can download the entire book on your own. Either way, it's a great place to get free audio books that you would never have access to anywhere else.

LearnOutLoud has a great selection of educational and self-improvement audio books, including a lot of exclusive material. They also have 500 free audio books! And they offer a new audio book free each month.

In order to get your free audio books, you'll need to set up a free account and when you do, you'll have the option to receive a free audio resource of the day from them. That way you'll be able to get even more free audio content!

There are lots more free audio books out there. You just have to look for them.

Or you can let me do the looking for you!

I love audio books and I love free. And I have found so many free audio book resources that I just had to share. You can find everything I find at my blog. Check it out.

After analyzing some of the statistics from this lens, it has come to my attention that a lot of people are looking to find Harry Potter audio books for free. A part of me can understand, after all, they ain't cheap!

But let's be real. These are books (and audio books and movies...) that people wait in line for. That people are willing to pay money for to get their hands on as soon as possible. If you were a business, would you be handing out a product that has that kind of demand for free? I don't think so. I know I sure wouldn't be.

As for the author, yeah I've heard that she is rich, as in richer than the Queen of England - more money than she can ever spend - rich. But you know what, good for her. Anyone who has the dedication to write 7 books totaling over 4,000 pages and has the creativity to make kids and adults absolutely love reading those books, deserves every penny! I don't begrudge her a single cent.

All that aside, that doesn't mean that you have to pay to listen to the audio books. You can get on the waiting list at your local public library or you can borrow a copy from your friend who just had to buy it. Two perfectly legitimate ways to listen to Harry Potter audio books for free. (Notice that I said borrow and not copy if you want to maintain legitimacy!)

Not good enough for you? Your next option is to pay as little as possible for those Harry Potter, or any other bestselling audio books. Consider signing up for one of the audio book clubs. If you are an avid listener of bestseller audio books, this is probably your best money-saving option. Whether you want to rent or buy, get cds or download files there is a club that fits the bill.

For your convenience, here are some of the online audio book clubs out there. All are good choices - it's more a matter of finding the one that best fits your needs. Take a moment to determine what you want, such as price, commitment, rent or buy, cds or downloads, etc. before you sign up for anything.

Audible.com

SimplyAudiobooks.com

Jiggerbug.com


Booksfree.com


And for those not in the US/North America:

Audible.co.uk


Audible.de

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