Playster

As a customer who has paid for their premium audiobook service, I'd like to warn everyone about recent changes. Playster is going to limit selection based on usage. I listened to a book every two or three days, and have been limited to the sort of selection you can get for free at any library, as in books so old that they are freely available in the US. Why would anyone pay for this?

Also they don't do partial refunds, no matter how clearly the issue is their fault. Save your money and stick to more honest sites.

I really love audiobooks and came into Playster super excited. It does have a great selection and the subscription model is great! However, a few months ago there was a price increase for access to most books and it is now getting a bit pricey. I am not sure if I really want to continue for too much longer at this higher price.

I loved Playster when I first joined. Within 6 months, the fee I was paying for audiobooks tripled in price. To make matters worse, I can only choose certain audiobooks in my pricey package. Ive tried really hard to stick with Playster, but I am about to give up. Im glad I kept my Audible subscription as that is what I use most. Ive rarely taken the time to write reviews for anything, and I dont enjoy submitting a negative review. I just feel duped by the steep price increase and limited audiobook selection.

I love the unlimited books that play store has to offer. I've been able to read a lot of new release books that I've loved, although the new releases seem to be sparser lately. I have been annoyed at the number of times I've had to reboot the website, reset my password, and get locked out frequently. I also wish that you could permanently delete books that you have already read so that you wouldn't get the message that you have many unread books left on the site. Keep improving, and we'll keep subscribing

Plaster rolled out new premium service the week before Christmas. I paid for it over iOS app it worked for 2 days. Now when I try to listen to books app asks me to upgrade agin and wont let Me listen. That was 4 days ago. Now after chatting with playster today I find out that tech support is on VACATION until next week and NO ONE will help until next week. Worst online service I have ever dealt with

I have a premium audiobook subscription, and one day without warning, the amount of content I could access through browsing or search was cut by probably 70% or more, and the only stuff I could still see and enjoy was obscure titles and things in foreign languages. It's taken a solid month of me bothering customer support to try to push some resolution so I know whether this issue will ever be fixed, or I should just cancel my subscription.

I am fairly happy with playster. I wish it kept better track of the books I have read. Not every book I have read is listed. I also think it would be helpful if you delete the book out of your lineup after reading, that there was a way to tell you have already read that book when your browsing at a later time. It is difficult to search for new books. Searching by author or by book doesnt always work. I have to uninstall then reinstall quite a bit it seems like.

Ive had lots of trouble with the app. My playlist disappears. There is not a good selection of new popular fiction and non-fiction for adults. The monthly membership cost is high for what I receive.

While I'm very satisfied with the content and the pricing, a lot of the time I am unable to listen to the books I have selected. The site says not available. It is not a result of bad Internet because one day it works fine and then nothing. Very frustrating. I may go back to Audible who were much more reliable

Its a great concept, but the site/app has so many bugs and their library is severely lacking. Customer service is not helpful at all.

As a software engineer working in an agile work environment, I have a lot of empathy when it comes to bugs in code. However, this seems to happen all too often with Playster. The service isn't consistent enough for me to pay as much as I do for it.

I wanted to try Playster over Audible, because I like the idea of streaming audiobooks vs purchasing them, but the price has doubled since I initially signed up. I often feel I would be saving money by switching to audible, and even worse, I'm often unable to even listen to my audio books on my commute to/from work because of a bug.

2 main things that need to change:
1. Find a price point that makes it worth streaming audiobooks. If it is just as expensive as Audible, where I actually purchase and own the book, then I'm losing out going with Playster.
2. Make the platform more stable. Create a testing suite with end-to-end tests to build confidence that new features will not break the product.

On a plus side, it seems the product team is very engaging with the community, so keep that up.

Im an idiot. Thats why I keep paying top dollar for a service that promises to give me access to ALL its available audiobooks and never does. I can only listen to audiobooks that I had previously stored on my wishlist months ago, before the increase in charge and change in account plans. I cant listen to anything new. It keeps saying I need to upgrade my account but Im paying for the premium plan.
Also, the app never saves my bookmarks and rarely saves my place. Books Ive finished keep appearing on my continue listening list.

The app crashes too often. Some books dont have a listenbutton.

Customer service is friendly but cannot offer results. They do give refunds when Playster is down, so I am very pleased about that

I've used this app regularly for the past 6 months with no trouble, but it updated and wanted me to pay $60 a month for "premium" audio books. No good titles were left for the lower subscription.

Not as many bells & whistles as audible but much more reasonable. I listen to a lot of books on audio and it's nice to have unlimited titles each month

I am getting very frustrated with the book selection. 80% of the time when I search for a specific book that I've heard was good it isn't available. I really enjoy book series but Playster rarely has all the books in a series. In some cases my library actually has a better selection of audiobooks than Playster does.

The good news is that the app works better than it used to. It used to stop frequently and it doesn't do that as often anymore, maybe once a week instead of once a day. So in functionality I'm seeing an improvement, now if they just get more books.

First, I am THRILLED that there is a service like playster! I REALLY wanted to love it, and yes, happily give them lots of money so I could listen to audiobooks all the time- the ones I cannot get at the library and don't want to buy. But the software both on my iMac desktop and on my iPhone is so buggy I had to quit my membership. On the phone, my primary device, the app would crash at least once every time I used it, often twice. The search feature does not find the correct items. Really- it needs work. When the app works, I will re-join.

The server wont connect and when I upgraded my service I have to wait until the next billing cycle. So I have books I cant finish for another 30 day. This is the worst part

I like the idea behind playster. I do wish it was handled better though. Customer Service is not great. The app glitches, shuts down, while I have a full access it tells me I cant listen to anything, because I really ought to get full access. They definitely need better software.

Can't connect half the time, in order to listen to books on your phone "you must connect"
Cancelled subscription, still billed me this month.

At first i was very excited to have found Playster.com and I was loving it as I listened to all my favorite authors but as time went by I started noticing that my authors were disappearing and my dashboard and discover page was changing each and every day. You may not know this and they do state it on their website but authors will be filtered out as you continue to use the service. I reached out to Chat last month and they confirmed that because I am such an avid listener I no longer have access to authors like James Patterson, David Baldacci, Lee Child all of which have a new book out that I cannot listen to. So now my dashboard gives me suggestions for the history of physics, biology fundamentals and human cloning just to give you an example of what is available to me now that I have been banned from the popular authors due to my usage. I am a remote worker and love to listen to my books in the office, a luxury I have because I don't disturb anyone but this makes me the customer they don't want. I pay $30 a month as I have the premium plan but I don't get to listen to any of my favorite authors anymore and the only reason I have not cancelled yet is because I have a few saved books that I want to finish mind you If I search for these same books they are no longer available to me. I am writing this review just as a warning to avid listeners out their to take into consideration that you will LOSE access to all the authors they advertise on their website when you first sign up. Read the fine print. Also as a suggestion go to your local library and get a library card as most libraries now have Overdrive/Libby where you can read e-books or listen to their audio versions. I have done that and have already added 5 books to my virtual library shelf. This is FREE and on the bestsellers you may have to put a hold on them as they are popular but you will get to listen to them.

I keep losing connection with the server which is extremely frustrating. In fact I am seriously considering cancelling my service

You can't beat the price for unlimited audiobook listening. Unfortunately the selection of books leave something to be desired. The app is also very quirky and unreliable at times. I've switched back to Audible for now until they work out some more of the kinks.