

Oyster, Netflix for books, is launching the beta version of its iPhone app - denzil_correa
http://pandodaily.com/2013/09/05/the-netflix-for-books-is-here-its-mobile-and-it-makes-amazon-look-old/

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GotNothing
For $9.95 a month, I'd rather support my local library/bookstore. Unlike
movies, where I could watch 5-6 on a really lazy Saturday, books take quite a
bit more time. I'm a pretty regular reader and I'm lucky if I get through 2
books a month.

Based on: [http://gawker.com/5971571/are-you-an-above+average-book-
read...](http://gawker.com/5971571/are-you-an-above+average-book-reader)

I read about the average (outlier) person, so for $9.95 I'd rather own the one
or two books I can read that month, which would cost close (give or take) to
the same amount as they're offering.

~~~
draz
I read on my commute to/from work. Not sure about the # of books I finish a
month, but I can say that I may be willing to "experiment" more with books I
wouldn't have otherwise. No downside to read the first 3 chapters and then
switch to another book, if you don't like it. I think, therefore, that it
might be a nice DISCOVERY tool.

~~~
GotNothing
I could see a person wanting to use as a "Discovery" tool, that's a big reason
I subscribe to Spotify.

However, Amazon offers samples of eBooks (most of them I believe) and they
offer that service for free.

~~~
draz
good point. The only issue with Amazon that I found was that the first sample
chapter might be 5 pages long, so you don't really get a flavor of the book. I
might be wrong though (maybe they now do it by total length rather than
chapters)

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anigbrowl
_The model is just too compelling for consumers: Pay a reasonable price, get
access to all the content you want without having to own it_

I quite like owning my books, actually. There's already an alternative to
doing so, called a library; since the book sales business did quite well int
he pre-internet days despite the widespread availability of libraries, I'm not
sure why the author thinks a functioning e-book library is suddenly going to
bring sales to a screeching halt.

~~~
greenyoda
In fact, some public libraries lend e-books too. And there's OpenLibrary.org,
which also lends e-books for free.

~~~
villek
My local library has been lending ebooks for years. Just a few days ago, they
started "lending" online movies as well: [http://www.helmet.fi/en-
US/Tips/News_flash/HelMet_libraries_...](http://www.helmet.fi/en-
US/Tips/News_flash/HelMet_libraries_launch_online_film_serv)

~~~
s_baby
I better go cancel my Netflix subscription.

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untog
Oyster? Really? Like the Oyster travel site:

[http://www.oyster.com/](http://www.oyster.com/)

Or the Oyster travel card:

[http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14836.aspx](http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14836.aspx)

?

~~~
trequartista
The FAQ mentions about the choice of the name Oyster -
[https://www.oysterbooks.com/help/faq](https://www.oysterbooks.com/help/faq)

"Oyster takes inspiration from the famous literary line in Shakespeare's The
Merry Wives of Windsor, "the world's mine oyster." All the pleasures of
reading are yours for the taking, no matter where you go."

~~~
nfailor
...which is precisely why it worked well for travel and cards...

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patmcc
The "Netflix for books" is, and has long been, libraries. And yes, almost all
of them have an ebook program in addition to their huge supply of paper books.

~~~
Thrall
Our local libraries recently started an ebook program. However, copyright
restrictions mean they aren't allowed to loan a single 'copy' out to more than
one person at once. With the relatively small number of ebook copies available
compared to the number of library users, last time I checked there was a long
waiting list for most books. Perhaps ironically, it is quicker to go to the
library and borrow a paper copy. (The irony being that one of the advantages
of ebooks over paper books is that you don't have to wait for them to be
delivered)

~~~
greenyoda
I suspect that as e-books become more popular, libraries are going to license
them in larger quantities. They're a big cost saver for libraries since they
take no space to store, no labor to re-shelve and can't be damaged or stolen.

~~~
vertex-four
The trouble with this is that without legislation in place to control the
pricing of e-books as sold to libraries, e-book publishers use a number of
tricks, from significantly higher pricing to making each license only valid
for a set number of borrows before another license has to be bought, which
negates the "they can't be damaged" benefit.

[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/06/ebooks-on-
borro...](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/06/ebooks-on-borrowed-
time)

------
ngoel36
Congrats to the team on the launch! I know they've been hard at work for quite
a while. Getting deals with the necessary publishers could not have been easy
without the clout of a large brand name like Amazon.

I'm sure the iPhone-only offering might prove controversial, but I don't doubt
that an iPad version will be coming soon. iPhone-only makes sense for me - I
prefer to read books in short chunks: on the Muni, waiting in line, a few
minutes before bed, etc. The Kindle app has done an excellent job of making
the best of the limited real estate, I'm optimistic that Oyster will do so as
well.

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TallGuyShort
I'm yearning for the day somebody applies that business model to audio
books... </wishlist>

~~~
hatu
Hasn't Audible done this for a long time already?

~~~
TallGuyShort
You're right - I guess I'm thinking more of the Kindle business model (I was
thrown off by all the Amazon references). With Audible, I believe you have to
stream the books, but when I want to listen to an audio book, I usually don't
have a reliable connection (e.g. road trips). It would be great if you could
download the audio (even temporarily, much as I hate DRM) as part of the
subscription. Since I'm now talking about a different model entirely, I'm
afraid I'm well and truly off-topic. Sorry :)

~~~
hatu
I did the Audible free trial for a month and you can download through the app
instead of streaming. It's worth a try if you're looking for something like
that.

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zphds
This looks neat but I find it weird that they targeted the iPhone first
instead of the iPad. Isn't reading on iPhone hard?

~~~
bphogan
Not to me. But then, I used to read audiobooks on my Palm Pilot in 2001.

~~~
TwistedWeasel
you read "audio" books?

~~~
autodidakto
How can a book itself be "audio", anyway? And if books become audio by default
someday, what will current books be called? "Written" books?

I propose: "I audio-read an audio-book".

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sinkasapa
How about we just support our public libraries? I haven't found a better
alternative and I'm already paying for it.

~~~
baddox
An online library has the same advantage over a physical library as Amazon has
over physical retail stores and Netflix has over physical video rental stores:
massive long-tail inventory.

~~~
nandhp
And all we need to get that massive+long tail inventory is for Overdrive (the
ebook system used by public libraries) to offer "inter-library loan".

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zzzmarcus
It seems like the main complaints are that:

\- It's iPhone only. This will, of course, change. They have to launch
somewhere first.

\- We already have public libraries and Overdrive. Sure, they are out there
but they don't solve the problem that Oyster does. If you just want to flip
through a bunch of books and see what you feel like reading, your current
options are to go to a physical bookstore or library or hope Amazon or Google
Books has enough to satisfy you in their limited previews. Imagine that as
you're reading a book, you come across a reference another and being able to
easily jump to the reference with no hassles like putting the book on hold (as
is almost always the case on Overdrive) or reaching a check out limit or
having to get in the car and go find a hard copy. Even the Kindle lenders
library heavily restricts the number of books you can use at once. Having the
full text of an ever-growing library at your fingertips is, if using Spotify
is a close enough parallel, something that can't be fully appreciated until
it's experienced.

\- Price. If you usually buy at least one book a month and you can assume
you'll probably do that indefinitely then it makes sense to instead start
paying Oyster (or similar) indefinitely to get not one book a month, but all
the books.

\- Authors don't get paid. I think it's to early to say whether this will work
out for authors or not. We don't know the business model. If it doesn't work
for authors and publishers, they'll stop using it and Oyster will have to
change their business model. In fact, this is the biggest risk as I see it.
Netflix started with a good catalog and, for awhile, had a great catalog of
movies. Now they're losing content and having to create their own, most of
which I have no interest in. If publishers were to fall out of love with
Oyster, Oyster's value would be severely diminished so they'll have to do what
it takes to keep publishers (and hopefully by extension, authors) happy. One
thing to consider, and maybe this is not as common as I'm guessing, but there
are so many times where I've read a Kindle book and decided to buy a paper
version to give the book a physical presence in my house. For certain authors,
this could mean getting paid twice when people read their books.

~~~
epochwolf
I wish they had an iPad app or a way to send books to my kindle. Reading on my
phone sucks. :(

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davidcollantes
This would work great if it offered schoolbooks. Rather than buying a very
expensive book, I would not mind "renting" it on a month by month basis.

~~~
greenyoda
Amazon.com already has an option for renting textbooks.

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hatu
This is a tough sell. An iPhone screen is not great to read on and to get
enough mileage out of this you'd have to read a couple of books a month on it.
If I could get something like this on my Kindle which is actually good on your
eyes I might consider it.

~~~
greenyoda
Amazon has a Kindle owners' lending library:

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=10007398...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000739811)

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dankoss
Why hasn't this already been done by Amazon, or Google Books? I understand
Prime has something similar, but only for select books. Is this purely a
publisher licensing issue? If so, wouldn't Amazon/Google have more leverage to
make it happen?

~~~
pico303
If you read the article, Oyster is for select books too (100k, vs. Amazon's
350k). But for Amazon you have to have a Kindle. Won't work with the Kindle
app on tablets, phones, or desktop.

~~~
dublinben
You can buy a gently used Kindle Touch for $40, and new for only $70. It will
more than pay for itself in terms of free books in under a year.

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njharman
I couldn't find any indication if this mailed physical books or is just
eBooks. Disclaimer, I only skimmed article (its breathless hype style is too
annoying/worthless to read in detail).

If just eBooks, total complete meh.

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javanix
If they could port this to Kindle somehow (or partner with a physical, non-
backlit reader manufacturer) I would be in in a heartbeat.

Until then I wish them luck and sincerely hope this sort of business model
takes off.

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shire
This would be a neat idea if it's free considering I can read as many books as
I want for free at the library "paperback" might I add. Sorry but the library
deserves my support more than your service.

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unono
All-you-can-buffet movies/tv and now books is done. That same for home
renting, car renting, vacationing, plane flying, private schooling, food
eating needs to be done. Huge profits for hackers that can do it.

~~~
JadeNB
> All-you-can-buffet movies/tv and now books is done. That same for home
> renting, car renting, vacationing, plane flying, private schooling, food
> eating needs to be done. Huge profits for hackers that can do it.

I must be missing the joke, but are you really suggesting that what the world
is missing is all-you-can-eat food? Like … a buffet?

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dave_sullivan
I said exactly this to my girlfriend about a year ago: "I've got a genius
idea, what about a netflix for books?" She said, "You mean a library?"

Now I'm not sure who was right...

~~~
jedberg
From what I can tell it is for ebooks, so not quite a library. :)

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jedberg
They really shouldn't call it "Netflix for books" because then they'll just
get a constant stream of "you mean a library?".

They should call it "Netflix for ebooks".

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impostervt
I really wish someone would make a netflix for audio-books. I'm aware of
Audible and it's competitors, but they all seem to limit you to 1 or 2 books
per month.

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wraith4000
I love the idea(though I'd never buy it on an iPhone), but I can't see this
playing out well for the authors. I see no mention of how much they get.

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garg
Please support your local libraries and local bookstores. I hope libraries are
never turned into historic relics.

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kermitten
It would be good to see which books they have before signing up. I like the
idea though a little expensive.

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phaedrix
So...Would have to read books on an LCD screen instead of a nice-on-the-eyes
Kindle screen? No thanks.

~~~
dan-bell
I'm hoping for a future with faster refresh E-Ink screens available on low
spec, stripped down Android or FirefoxOS powered tablets.

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Urgo
iphone only, meh.

