Converting Audible books to MP3 on a Mac

I recently found myself wanting to convert my Audible audio books to play back in our car. Audible books have DRM applied to them so needed a way of extracting the audio from Audible AAX files and converting them to MP3.

Fortunately I came across Open Audible, an open source tool that allows you to log into you Audible account, download and convert books from your library.

1. Download OpenAudible
2. Once installed, open Open audible by selecting Controls > Connect to Audible from the menu, or by press ⌘K. You’ll be prompted to add your audible/Amazon username and password.
3. Once connected your Audible library will be displayed at the bottom of the interface.
4. Right click on the book you want to convert and select Download from the menu, alternatively press ⌘D with the book selected.
5. Once downloaded right click on the book and select convert to MP3. Once the book has been converted, a little green circle icon will be displayed next to the book.
6. With the book selected and converted press ⌘M or choose Show MP3 from the menu to show your audio book in the Finder.
7. The converted MP3 contains all the appropriate ID3 tag information as well as the book artwork and is ready to use in an MP3 player or in my case on an SD card to playback in the car.