LibriVox

LibriVox: A Modern Public App With Free Audiobooks

Books have played a vital role in the development of humanity. They have been the bearers of knowledge and have helped them preserve and pass it for many generations. Today, when we are standing in the face of digitalisation, there is a need to preserve and assimilate all the great texts and literature for generations to come. Though it's a long process and will take decades to be done, it will help in passing knowledge to the scholars of tomorrow who may not be lucky enough to physically get access to these thousands of books ever in their lives.

LibriVox is a platform created by modern readers, writers and book lovers who share the feeling mentioned above. To make books accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world free of cost, LibriVox maintains more than 24000 audiobooks which are free for anyone to use. It is a volunteer-led initiative and removes any business model from between. With no one seeking profit or avoiding loss, LibriVox audiobooks app runs on an annual budget of USD 5,000 and has been offering its services for more than 15 years now, serving millions of listeners annually. 

In this LibriVox app review, we will see what makes this app a must for every book lover. Being one of the top reading apps in 2020, there is a lot to be cherished about this amazing app.

Pros and Cons of LibriVox

LibriVox Audiobooks App is the reader’s, new love

LibriVox started in August of 2005 by a Montreal-based writer Hugh McGuire with the question “Can the net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the public domain to life through podcasting?”. A few years later the answer was evident. The platform saw several volunteers recording books and contributing to the Librivox archives. The platform allows users to join as “Readers” or “Listeners”. Readers can start a book and record the portion they want to contribute or add to any existing porting from someone else’s LibriVox recordings. After proof-listening from the various members of the LibriVox community, the audiobook is available for any user to listen to, whenever and wherever they want. Today LibriVox audiobooks total up to more than 24,000 in number with 1,000 new projects being added each year. 

LibriVox App, a Gift from the Book-lovers to the Book-lover

Since its inception in 2005, the main features and the way LibriVox Audiobooks app works, haven't changed much. The technology of the platform has improved over the years due to the efforts of volunteers and their web-development skills. Even today LibriVox is free for use by anyone. The organisation does not have any budget or legal professionals profiting from the operations, rather the whole point of this platform is to enable book lovers, listen to their favourite books for free.  In early 2010, after successfully raising required USD 20,000 through crowdfunding in 24 days, LibriVox urged contributors to help fund similar other projects instead of giving more money to it.

Key Features of the LibriVox App

Even after being so simple and apt in what it does, there is more to LibriVox than what meets the eye. Here, we will see a few aspects of this amazing app, making it one of the best must-have apps for every book lover.

1. Free Free Free Audiobook App

Did we tell you it's free? There is absolutely no fee, cost, a subscription is involved in any way. All you need to do is just join as a reader and listen to whichever audiobook you pick from the archive, making it the best free audiobook app available in stores.

2. Huge archive which is constantly growing

Being a community-driven platform, LibriVox app is constantly growing with many books being uploaded each day. Readers can collaborate to submit projects which result in multiple submissions in a small duration of time.

3. Your partner when multitasking

Listening to podcasts and audiobooks has been trending for a while and a good reason. For those who spend a lot of time commuting or other things which have a scope of multitasking, LibriVox is a great app for them. It supports Android Carplay and Google cast, making it a perfect partner, wherever you go.

4. Use it on the laptops, smartphones, tablets and iPods

LibriVox has custom versions for multiple platforms for optimum performance. LibriVox app for iPhone works precisely with iPhones and LibriVox app for iPad works only for iPads. For other platforms too, they have optimised versions to best fit their needs like for Android and Windows.

5. The community-driven platform encourages diversity

Being a portal led by people, LibriVox flourishes on diversity. With books from more than 41 languages and every part of the world, they have created a multilingual platform for book lovers.

6. Proof-listening and voice-normalisation takes care of the content quality

Every audiobook uploaded at LibriVox is reviewed and proof-listened by many community members and only then certify it as verified. Though most of the books and support are in English, proof-listeners from other languages are also contributing more and more each day. You can use the voice-normalisation feature to set the voice to your preference.

8. overs a wide range of genres

There are many LibriVox genres in which audiobooks are available. From sci-fi fantasy to biographies, there is everything that you will find here. It uses title, author or genre to look at new recordings, or search by keyword.