If you’re in US, you can borrow audiobooks from public libraries for free usually through an app. Its very convenient.
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.
That’s a great idea, I’m on a 16-week wait list for hitchhiker’s guide right now
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
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.
Having all of their needs fulfilled a hundred times over alters their sense of normalcy and causes them to be less relatable. It’s inevitable.
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…
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.
Ever read Transmetropolitan? This sounds like something directly out of that. People going to concerts to hear their favorite bands sing advertisements to them.
With how shitty Weezer is nowadays, that Audible.com song might be their best work in years
Yeah…nowadays…
Celebrities shamelessly selling out and publicly writing blatant repetitive advertisement? How could they do such a thing?
Anyways, that movie, now also available on streaming services!
That’s when you start spitting on that band.
Somebody needs to invent an IRL adblocker.
It’s called booing.
I was at the concerts in the 90s and early 2000s, Metallica, Slayer, Motörhead, Amorphis, Nofx, Bad Religion etc, I don’t go to concerts anymore for about 10 years. They don’t make them as they used to anymore. What shows they were - wow. Even the smaller ones were epic as fuck, like Blind Guardian. No, they don’t do it anymore. This post prices my point once again. ( TIL I’m finally in the “back in my days” age)
I can only imagine Blind Gaurdian live!
Blind Guardian still performs live and there’s still many great shows with great artists in many different genres.
Just have to hit up the right bands. Superorganism for instance puts on a fucking great show, though you wouldn’t think it listening to their songs. There were at least 3 mosh pits at that concert lol.
I’ve been to quite a few concerts in the last few years and some bands are much better at doing concerts than others. For example I will always show up if Black Stone Cherry has a show anywhere near me because they’re significantly better in concert than their studio albums, meanwhile Black Veil Brides was the worst performance at their own concert with their opening bands providing far more enjoyable and engaging shows than them.
Most recently i attended The Offspring, Sum41 and Simple Plan and holy crap was that a good bucket list concert. Sum41 encouraged a lot of action in the pit as well as lots of audience engagement while The Offspring had a ton of fun audience interactions and silly banter between (and in one case in the middle of) songs.
They absolutely make them like they used to and even better, you’re just old and your judgement is clouded, and you wish to return to your youth.
Homeboy went to Taylor Swift and was upset it wasn’t like it used to be
I would be upset if I paid for an ad. I would probably stop being a fan.
I would buy drinks just to throw at them. Like a lot of drinks.
Nah you gotta bring cold bottles of piss with you to the gig. That’s how they know you don’t respect them.
That’s just playing right into their hands.
Collect empties and fill them up in the toilets. Recycling!
How would this even work? Would the crowd not be booing the ad-song? I can’t imagine a sponsor would want that.
Audio books are free with Libby. Fuck audible. Support libraries.
My wife listens to audiobooks constantly. She uses Libby and hasn’t paid for one in years. Highly recommended.
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.
Worse is Audible is about to put ads in their books.
At least they aren’t putting Weezer songs in their books.
Back in my day you had to remove the Weezer from your Windows 95 install disc!
In addition to Buddy Holly, my windows 95 also had Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong by the Spin Doctors. What a time.
They should have topped it off with 500 miles, my dawdurrrr, and maybe throw in mr Jones just to really dial up the pain.
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?
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.
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.
I like downpour.com, and I have used audible-tools.kamsker.at to remove the DRM from audible.
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A booktuber I like uses libro.fm I can’t speak of them myself as I don’t listen to audiobooks
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.
Are they actually? I’m so glad I cancelled my subscription.
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.
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.
This is why more cool and talented people should be in the public eye. Weezer legit felt, when I was 16, to be the best representation of my aesthetics and values. Writers I liked referenced them. Their music was in ads for stuff I liked. And so my teenage personality was heavily influenced by these shitty people who made good music before I was born (and pretty shit music after I was born).
And that vulnerability and honesty and that highly creative style is what drew me in, in the first place.
it always seemed kinda cheesy and phoned-in to me. Like they just came up with easy melodies and wrapped them in the most accessible format. Like a Nickelback for a different crowd.
The people on the Windows 95 CD are sell-outs?!
It feels so bizarre that they would do this, they always seemed so cool to me.
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.
They’ve been up their own ass for a long while.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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Oh, good. So it’s not paid stupidity, it’s genuine stupidity.
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.
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.
The Who did an entire album where they jokingly plugged products, including on the album cover.
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.