Downloadable media - #22

I'm not really a big fan of audiobooks except for longish trips. Even then since my car isn't set up to connect to an MP3 player I'm limited to audiobooks on CD.

After doing some searches it appears that Overdrive has the better collection as far as my personal tastes go. Although Overdrive's music section disappointed me. Except for the classical section I'd never heard of any of the songs or artists.

I'd say Overdrive also has the better user interface. I had to download the Overdrive Media Console (which was easy), but then it required me to update my Windows Media Player for "security reasons". (My first thought? How did Bush manage to seduce my computer?) Still, it walked me through the whole thing pretty well. Although, considering the size of the files, I'd never want to try this with a dial-up connection. Even with a DSL connection, it took quite some time.

I can see the appeal for people who like listening to audiobooks and use a device, like an MP3 player or even their computer. My biggest 'complaint' is that having two providers makes things rather complicated and discouraging for the casual user.