Amazon is launching a digital ebook and audiobook subscription service, allowing Kindle users unlimited access to thousands of titles. “Netflix for books” service will provide more than 600,000 digital and audio books for $9.99 a month.
According to the report, many of the bestsellers won’t be available, at least at first, as none of the big five publishers – HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Macmillan and Hachette, is taking part in the program. However, there are quite famous titles, including the “Lord of the Rings” and the “Hunger Games” trilogies, as well as the “Harry Potter” series. In fact, all these, plus thousands more books are available for free at the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, but only for Prime Members ($99 a year). So, which service is better?
If you are a Kindle user with Prime membership, you can “borrow” an e-book a month from the library. But if you are really like reading and only a book each month isn’t enough, you can get Kindle Unlimited. For $9.99 a month, you will be able to read Kindle books and listen to Audiobooks without any restrictions. You will not actually own these titles, but you will be able to enjoy them over and over again as long as you have a valid subscription. Once it ends, you won’t have access to the selected titles.
Kindle Unlimited monthly fee is similar to what the current competitors are offering. Oyster, providing unlimited access to more than 500,000 books, costs $9.95 a month. Scribd, on the other hand, has 400,000 titles and a lower fee at $8.99 a month. And in order to enter the competition, Amazon can’t offer the service only to Kindle users. Instead, it will be available on any device, including Kindle e-readers, the Kindle Fire tablets and the Fire Phone which is coming up in a week, as well as on iPad and iPhone.
Amazon’ sKindle Unlimited is a great option for Kindle users, and considering it adds the five major publishing companies, it will be a great competition to Oyster and Scribd.
[amazon_link asins=’B07PS737QQ,B07DLPWYB7,B07GRSK3HC’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’dubaichron-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’4943d39a-fc48-4e16-9ebe-cbfb20368488′]
