• Fredselfish@lemmy.world
      772·
      1 year ago

      Worse is Audible is about to put ads in their books. Which is bullshit if I pay for a book no way should they be allowed to add ads into my books.

      • Techmaster@lemm.ee
        471·
        1 year ago

        Worse is Audible is about to put ads in their books.

        At least they aren’t putting Weezer songs in their books.

          • ArtVandelay@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            In addition to Buddy Holly, my windows 95 also had Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong by the Spin Doctors. What a time.

            • Techmaster@lemm.ee
              2·
              1 year ago

              They should have topped it off with 500 miles, my dawdurrrr, and maybe throw in mr Jones just to really dial up the pain.

      • DrMango@lemmy.world
        13·
        1 year ago

        There are other ways to get your audiobooks ad-free.

        Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, there should be more discussion about ways to get ebooks and audiobooks outside of the major paid platforms like Audible. I was gonna make a wink-wink-nudge-nudge reference to pirating here, which is viable, but then I realized I couldn’t name 5 legitimate audiobook providers off the top of my head, and I consume a lot of books!

        So besides Audible and Libby, can anyone tell me about good, legitimate sources for audiobooks?

        • cokeslutgarbage@lemmy.world
          4·
          1 year ago

          I pay for a subscription to Scribd, i think its like $12 or $14 USD/month. I started using it after I heard an ad on Levar Burton’s short story podcast, “Levar Burton Reads”. His recommendation sold me because he’s a genuine advocate for literacy. I don’t THINK it’s Amazon affiliated, I try not to use Amazon products and services, but it’s getting harder all the time to avoid them. It has slightly less of a selection than audible, but I find many great things on there. It doesn’t have tokens or whatever the audible bullshit is, you can just listen to whatever you want whenever you want. There’s no ads, but it does make recommendations and suggestions, I’m sure those are some kind of sponsored. When I signed up, it also automatically signed me up for a free service called farfaria, or something like that, which is a children’s audio book service. I had no interest in that, but my mother, who is a nanny, really enjoys it. I really really like it, but there are some titles (can’t think of them off the top of my head, but mostly big name and brand new stuff) that aren’t on there that I do feel like I miss out on.

        • Sir_Fridge@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          Yeah I looked too but I really enjoy listening to warhammer audiobooks. Libby is not an option and the libraties here don’t have any of those books available. Audible has every single one the moment they release.

          • pirat@lemmy.world
            4·
            1 year ago

            I read the other day here on Lemmy about various US libraries accepting anyone to sign up. They say it’s for local residents, but anyone can sign up with a fake address and use it for Libby. IIRC, Chicago and Brooklyn among others were confirmed to be working. Maybe they have the books? I think if you search Lemmy for “Libby”, you’ll find the thread somewhere.

        • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 year ago

          Was listening to one of my audio books. After chapter 24 it came in with music then was a narrator introducing the book I am currently listening to. Thought my app glicthed and was back at the beginning then after 30 seconds it continued at chapter 25.

          Then it did again at chapter 40. I then knew what it was. It a placement for them to put an ad. I owned this book for years and suddenly this was added in.

          Think it a test.

          • Cruxifux@lemmy.world
            2·
            1 year ago

            Well, time for me to power listen to my remaining audible books before they’re ruined for me. I’m glad I went back to paperback books. Ain’t no ads getting suddenly added in my old faithfuls any time soon.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      9·
      1 year ago

      My wife listens to audiobooks constantly. She uses Libby and hasn’t paid for one in years. Highly recommended.

        • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
          9·
          1 year ago

          I like the joke in the comic better (paraphrased from memory)

          “You ate chicken parmesan.”

          “whats Parmesan, is it an animal?”

          “I don’t know”

      • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
        66·
        1 year ago

        I love that part of the movie because at the time it premiered I had an acquaintance from university who was vegan. Dude would pass out cold if he stood up too fast. Doctor said that as it turns out, he was doing vegan wrong and he needed to eat meat ASAP to fix the damage to his metabolism. Then, afterwards, if he still wanted to be vegan he would have to supplement way more protein than he was doing before. The contrasting absurdity always cracked me up when they tried to make it as if being vegan gives them superpowers.

  • hotsox@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    36·
    1 year ago

    If you’re in US, you can borrow audiobooks from public libraries for free usually through an app. Its very convenient.

    • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
      16·
      1 year ago

      And if you’re a pirate, or if you happen to have a lot of Audiobook CDs, or if you have a bunch of books on audible and want to free them, AudiobookShelf is an amazing self hosted solution for Audiobook libraries

    • Lianodel@ttrpg.networkEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      Libby! They also loan out ebooks (which is usually what I use it for). Total game-changer.

      Also, as a tip: Check out what libraries you’re eligible to join. I’m in New York State, and despite not living in NYC, I am totally eligible for cards at the New York Public Library, Queens Public Library, and Brooklyn Public Library. Between those, and all the libraries in my county pooling their resources, I rarely have to wait long for a book unless it’s brand new.

        • Lianodel@ttrpg.networkEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, it works great! Odds are you might have some libraries that are open to everyone in your county or even your state (assuming you live in the US, but I don’t even know if or how Libby would work elsewhere). There are also libraries that are open to anyone in the country, though they seem to be closing that option. And there are some libraries that will give cards to non-residents for a recurring fee.

          …and you didn’t hear this from me, but you can also, you know, lie. Use a realty website like Realtor.com or Zillow, get a valid address, and sign up for some libraries. Very rarely one will check your IP, but otherwise, you know. I haven’t had to do it because I’m spoiled as a New Yorker, but it’s an option.

    • steeznson@lemmy.world
      4214·
      1 year ago

      IMO there is no way a musician name drops a product without collecting a bag. The interview with Amazon would also have cost them money to make happen.

      Weezer would need to be astonishingly naive to write the song before the agreement was reached with Amazon. Also other comments in this thread detail their past record of selling out.

      I listen to quite a lot of hip-hop and there were a couple of years about a decade ago where almost every artist had a lyric about uber.

    • Adi2121@lemmy.ml
      276·
      1 year ago

      Yeah I was thinking it was Grapes of Wrath. It makes sense, the song’s whole point was River’s pandemic-era hobbies, and Audible blew up in the pandemic. I feel this rant is just the author projecting their anti-Amazon mindset onto a band they dislike. Sure, Amazon is terrible, but I doubt they would pay Weezer of all bands to promote Audible. Maybe its just my youthful optimism and love of Weezer clouding my rationality, but I feel like this is just another “old man yells at cloud”.

      • owlboy@lemmy.world
        182·
        1 year ago

        It’s interesting. There are many songs from over the years about products the song writer likes.

        I’m thinking about beers, and cars, and instruments, and various other things. Including games and movies and books.

        It’s funny that once it’s a website, that crosses the line.

        • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
          7·
          1 year ago

          The Who did an entire album where they jokingly plugged products, including on the album cover.

        • Thurstylark@lemm.eeEnglish
          82·
          1 year ago

          It’s not the website part that I find stupid. It’s the advertising for free.

          I also think that those things are stupid. Whatever company owns the product isn’t going to be happy if you take it for free, so don’t give that company something for free.

        • HardlightCereal@lemmy.worldEnglish
          63·
          1 year ago

          People are incapable of applying critical thinking to traditions. They grew up with beer and car ads, so that’s normal. Website ads are new, so they get treated with basic critical thinking and are hated, because that’s the logical way to feel about all ads.

    • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
      123·
      1 year ago

      Also doesn’t seem like it was paid placement

      I’m not so sure on that. At the very least they paid him for the interview there, and really I think they probably just made out that they didn’t find out beforehand.

      It’s pretty ridiculous to think that a band that’s been in the business as long as Weezer has, signed to a major label like Atlantic Records, wouldn’t ask for permission to use someone else’s brand in one of their songs.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    27·
    1 year ago

    Ever read Transmetropolitan? This sounds like something directly out of that. People going to concerts to hear their favorite bands sing advertisements to them.

    • YeetPics@mander.xyz
      101·
      1 year ago

      That’s the power of advertising, alot of bands seem a type of way. That’s the type of way that let’s you buy their merchandise and it is manufactured.

    • ManosTheHandsOfFate@lemmy.world
      31·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, it’s not like they’re poor and need the money. Rivers is an odd guy. It wouldn’t surprise me if he considered it some sort of art piece.

  • anthoniix@lemmy.world
    296·
    1 year ago

    Grapes of Wrath is a great song, it’s not some “audible ad”. It’s weird that one of their best songs in years is being characterized like that.

    • LifeInOregon@lemmy.world
      52·
      1 year ago

      Right?! And the album’s several years old now. The song is one of many written in the midst of the pandemic about the peculiar escapes from life we find.

  • chaogomu@kbin.social
    241·
    1 year ago

    As a counter point to this guy saying “Get back to the place you were in when you loved music”.

    Most artists are fucking miserable when they’re producing their greatest works, Rivers Cuomo is no exception.

      • chaogomu@kbin.social
        72·
        1 year ago

        That too, but the thing about great art, it tends to come from a place of pain and misery. Artists who tap into that, are rarely happy.

        But if they last long enough, and don’t join the 27 club, they tend to either get help, or at least find some way to achieve a modicum of peace. There are a couple notable exceptions, who found no peace, and who either didn’t get help or didn’t get enough help…

        • WolfdadCigarette@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
          3·
          1 year ago

          I prefer to think of it as coming from a place of need rather than distress, as many modern musicians really don’t have much in the way of trauma. I do agree that most leaps in music were the result of broken people, though. Sanity and stability don’t offer much in the way of novelty.