Warning, this video contains mostly nonsense.
(suspenseful music) - [Voiceover] Gerald Undone,
prolific YouTuber with over one billion subscribers,
heralded by many as the greatest reviewer of all time.
Despite countless other offers,
he built his way to the top of YouTube
using only one recurring sponsor.
But now, the most trusted man on the internet
is going to review more than just technology,
he's going to review the rest of the sponsors.
- Let's get Undone.
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody?
I'm Gerald Undone,
and there's always money in the banana stand.
So as that humble opening segment suggested,
in this series I'm going to be reviewing
the products and services from the brands
that appear as sponsors over and over again
in the YouTube videos that I watch.
And I watch a lot of YouTube,
so I have a long list of sponsors to work my way through.
In today's episode, we're discussing Audible.
Now I chose Audible, because it's a bit of a softball,
which felt appropriate given that
I'm testing out a new format for this series.
The point of this series isn't to dunk on any YouTubers
that are sponsored by these brands,
but instead to take a more objective look
at services those brands provide,
by me, a reviewer who doesn't actually care
if you sign up for that service or not.
So let's start by taking a look at
what some YouTuber's have to say
when they're pitching Audible.
- Just go to audible.com/legaleagle,
or text LegalEagle to 500 500.
I use Audible almost every day,
it's by far the best source of audio entertainment
on the internet.
And if you tried to listen to everything on Audible,
it would take you three centuries.
- And you know we can trust him, after all, he is an eagle.
(eagle screeching) But just to be safe,
let's get a second opinion from a doctor.
- www.audible.com/doctormike.
You'll get your 30-day free trial,
and you can read one of these bad boys.
By downloading your first Audible.
I even listen to audiobooks on the gym.
On the gym.
- Alright, so if I'm understanding this correctly,
medically speaking, it's like reading,
but instead of using your eyes, you use your ears.
And hey, I can get behind that,
because sometimes when I'm using my eyes for other things,
my ears have nothing to do,
like when I'm driving, or cooking, or reading.
Chapter 18, the wind makes dust.
Why should so many people find-
- [Voiceover] Erebus, he was darkness.
(Gerald drowns out audiobook)
- So, obviously, to test it out, I signed up for Audible.
It cost me $15 per month for the premium service
which gets you the subscription-based library,
but also lets you select one title a month
that you can have for keeps,
even if you cancel your membership.
However, you can definitely cheat the system a little bit here
if there's just one book you wanted.
Because they offered me a free trial for 30-days.
So you can just sign up for that, get your one free book,
then cancel before you start getting charged
for real in month two.
I tested this and it works.
The first book I chose was
"The Anthropocene Reviewed" by John Green.
And while I'm not here to review John Green's book,
even if that would be cheekily ironic,
I can say that it's instances like that specific audiobook
where this platform truly shines.
Being able to hear the writer deliver the words
with the cadence and tone that was originally intended
does elevate the experience.
This is probably more true for non-fiction,
and especially so when the work is as deeply personal
as "Anthropocene" is to John.
Overall, I loved the book,
and it was definitely worth the $15.
I imagine that biographies narrated by the subject
would also provide a similarly captivating experience,
but the next book I tried was not a biography,
but a hybrid non-fiction, called "Mythos" by Stephen Fry.
I chose this one because I like Greek mythology,
and I'm a big fan of Mr. Fry's work,
and most importantly, voice.
As expected, I've been enjoying it.
Although, I am finding this one a bit harder to get through
as it's over five hours longer than "Anthropocene."
And now that I'm roughly 2/3rds of the way through,
I'm feeling a bit overloaded
with ancient Greek names and places.
Not a criticism of the work,
but just a reminder that audiobooks can be a commitment
if you're someone who likes to finish things, like I do.
There's this interesting efficiency conundrum
with audiobooks.
When I'm reading a physical book,
I can modulate the speed at which I read it
to hurry past the boring parts,
or slow down through the enjoyable sections,
all while keeping a consistent head voice,
by which I mean the voice your brain generates
while you read, your internal narrator,
which I would hope is your own voice,
unless you do impressions of someone else in your head
while you read, and if that's the case,
I'm not sure if audiobooks
are the solution to your problems,
or your worst nightmare.
But what's good about Audible
is that the app allows you to set the playback speed
to solve that same modulation problem,
but doing so becomes comically distracting in my opinion.
I just got finished saying
that there's something magical about hearing John Green
speak passionately about his life.
It doesn't have the same emotional impact
when you slow him down to the point of sounding drunk,
or speed him up until he sounds five cups of coffee
and a dash of methamphetamine deep.
- [John] In exchange for good press,
I realized I didn't want to write in code anymore.
I moved to Chicago and worked as a typist for temp agencies,
until eventually getting a job doing data entry
for Booklist magazine, a biweekly book review journal.
- So if it's an audiobook you're not liking,
you can either quit reading,
sacrificing your free credit for that month,
force your way through it at the intended pace,
or turn the book into a comedic farce at a faster speed.
None of which sound like great ways to spend $15.
However, the pricing isn't terrible
when you look at the cost of similar works
in the bookstore these days.
Most of the books I'm interested in
seem to retail for in and around $30.
So even that one premium book a month from Audible
seems like a decent deal,
but that's not factoring in the dollar value
of whatever enjoyment you might get
from holding a physical copy.
And there are studies that suggest
that reading, with your eyes,
is better for retention of information than just listening.
But I believe there's also studies
that show that multiple mediums beat any single one.
So perhaps the best possible combination
of enjoyment and retention
would be to buy the physical copy of the book,
and follow along with the audiobook
while listening to the author read their own words.
We'll call it, Followalongible.
It costs $45 a book,
but we promise to make it an experience
you won't soon forget.
Now I'm focusing mostly on those premium selections,
because let's face it,
if you heard about a certain title because it's trending,
was discussed on a talk show,
or by a creator you follow in their sponsored read,
it's most likely a premium book
and won't come in the basic subscription.
But admittedly, there are a bunch of classics
in the regular library that you can work your way through
if you want to increase the value of your monthly spend.
But the real value of your Audible subscription
comes from the badge collection.
What is our fascination with achievements
and gamifying everything?
I'm sure Amazon had some SkyNet AI thing
determine that including these badges was a clever way
to make people spend more money or time on the platform,
enticing them to get those last couple badges
they don't yet have.
But I find it pretty comical, not just because they exist,
but because of how arbitrary they are,
and how easy many of them are to obtain.
For example, I have one here called weekend warrior,
"I hope your ears still work on Monday,
you've listened for at least five hours total on a weekend."
That's worth an achievement?
And you can also brag about it.
And keep in mind, I've only done 1 and 2/3rds audiobooks.
Next one, collector,
"You've reached the highest level for at least one badge.
Keep earning those gold badges."
There's a badge for collecting badges,
you got a badge,
so that you get a badge for collecting a badge.
High noon, "You've listened for at least
three hours during lunchtime."
That doesn't even make sense!
Who's lunchtime is three hours long?
Dabbler, "Congrats on exploring so many great genres,
you have eclectic tastes."
You've listened to content in at least two genres.
You've got such eclectic taste, you've tried two genres.
But I can see it kind of working,
if you had all of them except for one,
and you were like, "How do I get social butterfly?"
You've gotta appreciate the rhyming though,
"If status updates are kind of your thing,
you're well on your way to winning this bling.
Bravo Audible, bravo.
Anyway, let's wrap this up.
Normally when I review technology,
my main goal is to advocate for the consumer
and make sure the manufacturers aren't lying
about their offerings,
or getting too cute with their marketing.
So if we apply that same approach
to these Audible sponsorship reads,
is there anything you should be
significantly concerned with as, a potential customer?
- I'll expose you to the light of justice.
- To be honest, not really.
It's a monthly fee, you get one premium book each month
and access to a bunch of old ones.
You can unsubscribe quite easily
if you don't like the books.
The price isn't terrible.
The service is what it says it is,
and what most of the YouTubers I've seen say it is.
Really it just comes down to
whether you want to read with your ears or not.
I'm the type of person that would rather spend
my shorter commutes and creative activities
listening to music,
and I prefer to read in bed via a physical book
as a way to wind down before sleepy time.
That being said, longer drives and especially flights
lend themselves particularly well
to audiobooks in my experience,
and although I'm going to
discontinue my Audible subscription for now,
I can totally see myself starting it back up
for another 30 days if I have some traveling to do
in that particular month.
Now, before we go,
no Gerald Undone review would be complete
without performing some in-depth testing.
And to that notion,
my first instinct was to test the audiobooks
in the obvious way,
which is of course using cardinal grammeters,
but it turns out they're all currently on loan
to the Swiss who are doing some interesting things
with audiobooks in zero-G environments.
So instead, I did some stress testing
to see what kind of stamina these narrators have.
To my surprise,
even after forty hours of continuous playback,
John Green did not seem to tire or ask for water even once.
- [John] I didn't want to write anymore.
- So read fatigue wasn't an issue in my testing.
Lastly, I wanted to perform a spectral analysis
on the sound captured from the playback of these audiobooks
and check for any inconsistencies.
- [John] But instead, something I was selling,
or, at the very-
- This is very strange,
and it's on all the audiobooks I've tested.
- [John] Something I was selling.
- What is that?
(John's voice repeating)
What if we just zoom in, enhance.
(demon whispering)
So as you can see,
Audible is perfectly fine,
not possessed by any interdimensional demons,
and a gets a final score of four and a half Hammers,
making it officially, too legit to quit.
I know what you're thinking,
there's bound to be some juicy outtakes
from this doozy of a video.
And you'd be right, there are, like this one.
But I believe there's also such studies,
show you kid, they'll show you all the studies.
But if you want to see the rest of them,
you're going to have to go watch my video on Nebula.
Nebula's a platform built by my creator friends and I
that allows us to host our content ad-free
without fear of YouTube restriction or demonetization,
giving us room to experiment with our videos
with the sole intention
of bringing the highest quality content to you,
the discerning viewer,
without any advertising or sponsor reads.
In fact, if you were watching this video
on Nebula right now,
you wouldn't be hearing this pitch for Nebula
or for our partner, Curiosity Stream.
Instead, you'd be off enjoying some of my hilarious outtakes
or onto other terrific videos,
like those from EposVox, TierZoo,
or even that litigious Eagle I mentioned earlier.
And to increase your value even more,
we've partnered with Curiosity Stream,
the home of the best documentaries and educational content
on the internet, to bring you the ultimate bundle.
If you sign up for Curiosity Stream using the link below,
you'll get your Nebula subscription included for free,
and that's not a trial,
you'll keep your Nebula subscription
as long as you remain a Curiosity Stream member.
And for a limited time, if you use the promo code, undone,
by going to curiositystream.com/undone,
or by just clicking the link in the description,
you'll save 26%,
and get both Curiosity Stream and Nebula
for just $14.79 for the whole year.
So for less than $15 annually,
you'll not only be swimming in a sea of superb content
like David Attenborough's "Light on Earth",
but you'll also be supporting
your favorite creators directly.
And I'd personally appreciate it if you did sign up,
because I kinda wanna impress Curiosity Stream,
considering they were courageous enough
to sponsor a video series where I review sponsors.
And it's a perfect fit for Nebula,
because what better place to review sponsors
than on a platform with no sponsor reads.
I feel like I've said sponsor too much.
And so on that note,
I should get back to work reviewing the sponsor
for the next episode in this series.
See you then.
Alright... I'm done.