Duchesne County Library staff recommends trial of Blackstone audiobook subscription to cut digital checkout costs

Library staff on Sept. 16 presented Blackstone Audio Unlimited as a potential addition to Duchesne County Library’s digital collections and recommended a trial contract to reduce per-checkout costs for audiobooks.

Jessica Schoff described the service as an audiobook-only subscription currently offering about 7,500 titles, with plans to add roughly 2,000 more by year’s end. She said Blackstone’s pricing is tied to a library’s circulation range (digital plus physical) and that Duchesne County’s combined circulation was 140,000 in the prior year. Under a three-year contract with a 15% discount, Schoff said the service would cost about $5,500 per year—roughly one-quarter of what the library spends now on Hoopla for audiobook checkouts, which average about $2.50 per checkout.

Schoff listed user features the library found attractive: patrons can borrow unlimited audiobooks with no wait lists, keep items as long as they like, and have up to 10 simultaneous downloads per account to limit phone-storage burden. She summarized Blackstone’s tiered approach, noting the library sits near a threshold and that moving above the next tier could raise the cost substantially in future years if circulation increases dramatically. She said Tremonton Public Library has recently begun a pilot with Blackstone and that Blackstone bought Recorded Books three years ago, consolidating a large audiobook catalog.

Board members asked about mainstream-title availability, app usability and how cancellation or tier increases would work. Schoff said the vendor had provided confidential tier details and she would follow up with the board. She recommended the three-year option to lock in the discounted price while giving the platform time to gain traction with patrons; several board members expressed support for trying the service and said the library could re-evaluate funding if usage does not grow.

Direct quotation from the presentation: "No waiting. You can hold on to it as long as you want," Schoff said of the Blackstone model.

Budget impact and next steps Schoff said the subscription would be paid from the library’s digital-materials budget; at the discounted three-year rate she estimated $5,500 per year. She will return with contract details, tier thresholds, and app demonstrations; the board indicated interest but took no formal vote at the meeting.