A Netflix-like rental service for books via Amazon’s Kindle? I’ve always thought a subscription model made a lot of sense for the Kindle (or you get $200 worth of “free” books with the purchase of a Kindle, or make the hardware free if you agree to buy 20 books). It will be very challenging to get publishers to participate, though, so it will be a chicken-or-the-egg problem. Until Amazon can get the vast majority of publishers on board, the subscription won’t have a lot of value in the minds of consumers — they’ll complain “my favorite book isn’t available.” However, the ebook (mainly Kindle) got critical mass in terms of sales long before I predicted. So who knows?
The Kindle maker is trying to get book publishers to buy into a book rental service for digital content, reports the Wall Street Journal. But publishers aren’t excited, believing that such a Netflix-like service could lower the value of books and strain relationships with other book retailers. The service would charge customers a fixed monthly fee.
According to the WSJ, Amazon told publishers that the service would feature older titles. Publishers would also receive a “substantial fee” for participating.
via Tech Today: Amazon Digital Library, Book Prices Pressure Publishers – Digits – WSJ.
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Hi, I just noticed a small typo in the title for this article.
The “i” is missing in “digital.” Nothing big, just thought I would let you know.