After several years of podcast listening, I've decided it's time to take the plunge with audiobooks. Since
Audible.com seems to be the uncontested top dog around, went directly to their site this morning. It quickly became apparent that their "85 000 audiobooks" catalog is only available for US residents. Non-US residents have to settle with a much limited catalog. These
geographic restrictions are apparently an end result of the convoluted world of book publishing rights. EU legislation also seems to play a role since, as explained
here, if a UK resident tries to join the US Audible Website, EU VAT imperatives will force the US store to automatically redirect to
www.audible.co.uk. Although the pricing plans are pretty similar between the US and UK sites, the later only has "50 000 audiobooks" available on catalog. Long story short, in what audiobooks are concerned, it quite demoralizing not to be a US resident! Or is it?
After researching the matter more diligently, I've bumped into
this insightful thread. It provided airtight evidence that non-US residents can indeed join the Audible.com US store. Apparently the trick is to
register with a REAL US address on the "Billing Address" field. Doesn't matter if you credit card has a non-US billing address, doesn't matter if you register from a non-US IP and, since Audible.com only communicates with it's clients by email, it doesn't matter if the "Billing Address" recipient is a
random stranger.
Can anyone verify the accuracy of these claims? Really wanted to avoid associating my credit card info with a random US address without a couple of rock-solid double-checks...
Thanks in advance!