AfterDawn: News

Amazon looking to launch subscription book service

Amazon is negotiating with publishers to launch a "Netflix-for-books" type service.

Consumers would pay an annual fee to be given access to a large library of e-books.



The talks are still in their early stages, and are said to already be stalling as publishing execs balk. They believe the service could lower the value of books, and strain relationships with retailers that sell print versions.

Amazon wants the catalog to only include older titles, and will be free with an Amazon Prime membership. Amazon Prime costs $79 per year and give users free 2-day shipping on all purchases through Amazon.

The amount of books would be limited per month, and Amazon will pay publishers "a significant amount" to get the deal done.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Sep 2011 1:37

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• 1 comment

• KillerBug

  Quote:They believe the service could lower the value of books
  Lower the value of something that is practically worthless? People spend 8GB worth of torrent data to download a single movie that plays for 2 hours, downloading a pirated ebook often takes only a few seconds, and can provide days of use if it is a longer book. Anything that gives people a somewhat reasonable alternative to piracy is a good thing.
  
  Quote:and strain relationships with retailers that sell print versions.
  This will not make any changes; the reasons for buying print versions still exist (display purposes, gifts, coffee table leveling).
  
  Quote:
  Amazon wants the catalog to only include older titles
  
  I've got a feeling most of the titles that they actually get will be either public domain or total crap. Heck, they couldn't even keep 1984 and Animal Farm on the Kindle for people who paid for said books specifically...how can they hope to get any good titles with a subscription service?
  
  

  
  

  12.9.2011 02:40 #1