Do you actually own your audiobooks?
Updated September 2026
On most services, 'keeping' a book means it stays in that company's library and plays only in their app. Only Libro.fm and Downpour give you DRM-free files you can back up and play anywhere. Audible, Audiobooks.com, Chirp, Spotify, Kobo and Apple are all DRM-protected and app-locked.
Two different meanings of 'keep'
Every credit-based subscription advertises that you keep the books you buy, and every one of them is telling the truth — but they mean two very different things by it.
On Audible, Audiobooks.com, Kobo and Chirp, keeping a book means the licence stays attached to your account. Cancel the subscription and the title remains in your library and still plays. What you cannot do is move it: the file is DRM-protected and only decodes inside that company's app.
On Libro.fm and Downpour, keeping a book means you downloaded an actual audio file. It plays in any app, you can back it up, and it does not care whether the company still exists.
Why it matters more than it sounds
For most people, most of the time, this is abstract. Audible is not going anywhere and its app works well.
It stops being abstract in three situations: when a service withdraws from your country, when an account is closed or locked for any reason, and when you simply want to listen in a different app than the one you were given.
A library built over ten years on a DRM platform is a library you can only ever use on that platform's terms. Whether that is acceptable is a genuine judgement call rather than an obvious one — but it should be a decision rather than a surprise.
Which services give you real files
Libro.fm delivers DRM-free downloads on a $14.99 monthly credit or à la carte, from a catalogue of 500,000+ titles, and splits revenue with an independent bookshop you choose. It is the most complete answer to this problem.
Downpour also delivers DRM-free files, at $12.99 a month for a credit, and additionally offers rentals from about $5 — useful for a long book you want to hear once. Its catalogue and app are both weaker than Libro.fm's.
Everything else we have tested — Audible, Audiobooks.com, Chirp, Kobo, Spotify, Apple Books, Storytel, AudiobookSTORE and Libby — is DRM-protected.
Subscriptions where you keep nothing
A separate category is worth naming: services where nothing is retained at all, because nothing was ever bought.
Everand and Storytel are all-you-can-listen subscriptions. Spotify's included 15 hours a month works the same way. Libby lends books that expire. In every case, stopping the subscription ends your access completely.
That is not a criticism — it is simply a different product, and often better value per hour. It just means those services build no library, and the difference compounds over years.
A reasonable compromise
Most listeners we know do not resolve this purely. They use a library card for the bulk of their listening, a DRM-free store for the small number of books they genuinely want to own permanently, and a subscription for convenience.
If you only change one thing, make it deliberate: decide which books you actually want in ten years, and buy those from Libro.fm or Downpour rather than defaulting everything to one platform.
Frequently asked questions
- Do you own audiobooks you buy from Audible?
- You keep them in your Audible library permanently, including after cancelling, but they are DRM-protected and play only in Audible's apps. You hold a licence tied to your account rather than a file you can move elsewhere.
- Which audiobook services are DRM-free?
- Libro.fm and Downpour. Both deliver actual audio files you can back up and play in any app. Every other service we have tested — including Audible, Audiobooks.com, Chirp, Kobo, Spotify and Apple Books — is DRM-protected and app-locked.
- What happens to my audiobooks if a service shuts down?
- DRM-free files from Libro.fm or Downpour keep working, because they are ordinary audio files on your own device. DRM-protected libraries depend on the company's servers and apps continuing to operate, so there is no guarantee beyond whatever wind-down that company chooses to offer.
- Can I move my audiobooks to another service?
- Not for DRM-protected purchases — there is no supported way to transfer an Audible or Audiobooks.com library into another platform. DRM-free files from Libro.fm and Downpour can be played in any app you like, which is effectively the same thing.