HomeIf you're looking for ways to fit more books into your life, picking up audiobooks is a great way to do it. You can listen on your vacation, or just at home while you're doing other things. In this post, we would focus on the various audio formats audiobook supports and the best audiobook services based on users' nominations.
Common Audiobook Formats
The most common audiobook formats can be down into two main categories: lossless compressed audio formats and lossy compressed audio formats.
A: Lossy Compressed Audio Formats
Lossy compression is a form of compression that loses data during the compression process, that is to say, sacrificing quality and fidelity for file size. The good news is that, in most cases, you won't be able to hear the difference.
MP3 (.mp3)
MP3 is the name of the file extension and also the name of the type of file for MPEG, audio layer 3. Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals.
AAC (.aac)
AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding. It was developed in 1997 as the successor to MP3, and while it did catch on as a popular format to use, it never really overtook MP3 as the most popular for everyday music and recording. The compression algorithm used by AAC is much more advanced and technical than MP3, so when you compare a particular recording in MP3 and AAC formats at the same bitrate, the AAC one will generally have better sound quality.
AAX (.aax)
Audiobook format, which is a variable-bitrate (allowing high quality) M4B file encrypted with DRM. MPB contains AAC or ALAC encoded audio in an MPEG-4 container.
M4A (.m4a)
An audio-only MPEG-4 file, used by Apple for unprotected music downloaded from their iTunes Music Store. Audio within the m4a file is typically encoded with AAC, although lossless ALAC may also be used.
M4B (.m4b)
Audiobook/podcast extension with AAC or ALAC encoded audio in an MPEG-4 container. Both M4A and M4B formats can contain metadata including chapter markers, images, and hyperlinks, but M4B allows "bookmarks", whereas M4A does not.
M4P (.m4p)
A version of AAC with proprietary Digital Rights Management developed by Apple for use in music downloaded from their iTunes Music Store.
Ogg (.ogg)
OGG doesn't stand for anything. Actually, it's not even a compression format. OGG is a multimedia container that can hold all kinds of compression formats, but is most commonly used to hold Vorbis files — hence why these audio files are called Ogg Vorbis files.
WMA (.wma)
WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. It was first released in 1999 and has gone through several evolution since then, all while keeping the same WMA name and extension. As you might expect, it's a proprietary format created by Microsoft.
B: Lossless Compressed Audio Formats
On the other side of the coin is lossless compression, which is a method that reduces file size without any loss in quality between the original source file and the resulting file. The downside is that lossless compression isn't as efficient as lossy compression, meaning equivalent files can be 2x to 5x larger.
FLAC (.flac)
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. A bit on the nose maybe, but it has quickly become one of the most popular lossless formats available since its introduction in 2001. What's nice is that FLAC can compress an original source file by up to 60% without losing a single bit of data. What's even nicer is that FLAC is an open source and royalty-free format rather than a proprietary one, so it doesn't impose any intellectual property constraints.
ALAC (.alac)
ALAC stands for Apple Lossless Audio Codec. It was developed and launched in 2004 as a proprietary format but eventually became open source and royalty-free in 2011. ALAC is sometimes referred to as Apple Lossless.
WMA (.wma)
WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. Compared to FLAC and ALAC, WMA Lossless is the worst in terms of compression efficiency but only slightly. It's a proprietary format so it's no good for fans of open source software, but it is supported natively on both Windows and Mac systems.
Reference: https://www.epubor.com/common-audiobook-formats.html
Finding the Best Audiobook Service
Audible is the most popular audio subscription service, which has almost twice as many books as its next-closest competitor and is your best option if you want the newest content and widest selection. But if you burn through more than one audio book a month, Audible can start to get expensive. Besides Audible, there are other options to consider that have well-stocked libraries and useful features. Find out which audiobook service is right for you.
If one book a month isn't enough to satisfy you, you might try Playster, which lets you to listen to an unlimited number of audio books for only $14.95 a month, though you borrow them rather than own them.
If you're only an occasional listener, consider using one of the sites without a monthly membership fee like Barnes & Noble’s audio book site, Nook Audiobooks.
There're also some of the best free online audio book services like Overdrive, Hoopla and LibriVox. If you're not worried about the quality of the audio recording and are fine waiting to listen to a book you're interested in, these alternatives can save you a bundle.
Make It Easy to Convert Any File to an Audiobook
iTunes has added simple under-the-radar feature that allows you to quickly and easily tag any file in your iTunes library as an audiobook and move it into the Audiobooks section of iTunes and your iPod. How to?
Just right-click a track and select "Get Info", head to the "Options" tab, and then select "Audiobook" from the "Media Kind" drop-down menu. The file will instantly leave your Music library and head straight for your Audiobook library.
To mark multiple files at once, just select them all and go through the same process. The only remaining step is to tick the Remember Position checkbox if you haven't already, and your tracks should now have easily found their way to your Audiobooks section, and even better, they should work like an audiobook. Finally.
Plus, you can either choose to convert media files into Audiobook by using Pavtube Video Converter for Windows/ Mac, which is the most trusted and recommended software by many ardent Audiobook users. You can carry and listen to Audiobooks anywhere you want! If you own an amazing program like Pavtube Video Converter, you can enjoy any music and other entertainment based videos.
Get Pavtube Video Converter for Windows/Mac
> Directly convert audio files into Audiobook format and transfer the content to any portable device you want.
> Directly convert audio files to other devices such as Smartphones, MP3 Players, iPod, Apple devices, etc.
> Convert audio and video formats between more than 250+ formats with no quality loss.
> Extract audio from any video files at high speed.
> Edit videos, trim/crop/merge/split files, add watermark/subtitles/soundtracks/video effect, etc.
> Support Windows XP/2003/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8/Windows 8.1/Windows 10 whereas the macOS supported version are macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks, etc.
Related:
Top 10 Free Audio Converter Software
M4A to WAV- 3 Ways to Make M4A to WAV Conversion
Free Trial Video Converter
