
Amazon Tests ‘Kindle Unlimited,’ a Netflix for Ebooks and Audiobooks - jasonwilk
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/16/amazon-tests-kindle-unlimited-a-netflix-for-ebooks-and-audiobooks/
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aylons
Scribd, after dabbling for a long time in the pdf sharing arena, has changed
for a model just like this some time ago. One of the founders has even come
here at HN recently to talk about it (I can't find the post right now).

I wonder how will they react to this announcement. If they try to compete
directly, not only will it be an uphill battle, but Amazon has a hell of
firepower with the Kindle and Fire ecosystems.

~~~
smeyer
I believe this is the post you mentioned:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8035319](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8035319)

~~~
aylons
Indeed. Thank you!

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edanm
Yes! Yes! Yes!

If this happens, it will be my dream come true. Unlimited ebooks/audiobooks is
probably my #1 most requested "feature" from the world. Especially since
Amazon allows syncing between audiobooks and ebooks, but I really hate paying
for both.

Seriously, I'm such an Amazon fanboy :)

Interesting to see what the difference between publishing books online vs.
publishing real book will be in 10 years.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Well as long as they aren't Hachette books :-)

My thinking on this has evolved over time. Especially with NetFlix. The
'stream what ever you want' service is great if 'what ever you want' is
actually available, but something that it turns out is even more important for
me, is that something you wanted before, is still available now. I go back and
read books sometimes, and I go back and rewatch movies of TV shows. The random
loss of content on Netflix has forced me to go back to buying the DVDs and
ripping them rather than depend on NetFlix to have on tuesday something they
had on Friday.

For reference books especially, it would drive me insane to have the book
available, and then not available.

~~~
vlunkr
This bothers me as well. After you've watched something several times on
Netflix and then it isn't available, I feel like they've taken something
valuable away from me, even though I never owned it in the first place.

But this often results in me buying a physical copy, so I suppose that's a win
for the movie studios.

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higherpurpose
Some people seem to be missing the point about "why Amazon would do this and
'cannibalize' itself". Here's why - yes, some people are going to pay the $10
a month, and read 5 books a month, and those will be like 1 percent of their
e-book customers. The vast majority, if switched to this model, would pay $10
a month, and only read 2 books a year. The rest, will keep buying ebooks just
like now, so nothing will change from that perspective.

I'm guessing Amazon has enough data to know that this will end up profitable
for them. In a way, it's just like Prime. Some probably order a ton of stuff
every month, becoming unprofitable Prime members for Amazon, while others only
a couple of year, yet still pay $99 a year for free shipping.

It's only like any other "unlimited" deal out there. Some customers will be
very unprofitable as they will take full advantage of the "unlimited" offer,
but the vast majority of the customers will more than make up for it.

~~~
dublinben
Nobody who reads two books a year is going to sign up for this service. Only
people who read more than $10 of books per month are going to sign up.

Unlike prime, heavier users don't bring any additional revenue with this
program. Prime members spend hundreds of dollars more per year than non-prime
customers.

~~~
eggoa
Plenty of people (such as myself) find themselves buying several actual hard-
copy books a year only to read two or three of them. It's definitely not
rational -- maybe call it aspirational.

~~~
WalterBright
I buy grab-bag boxes of scifi books from ebay. I can't possibly read them all.
There's nothing rational about it :-)

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VikingCoder
Many libraries have e-book borrowing, too.

~~~
qntmfred
the experience is typically atrocious however (looking at you overdrive.com)
and the selection limited. netflix is easy and reasonably comprehensive.
hopefully amazon's product will be as well.

~~~
x1798DE
I wonder if you have a not ideal library? I get a large fraction of my
audiobooks and ebooks from libraries. For very popular books there's a bit of
a wait list, but if you have a very long "to-read" list like I do and a
library card at a major metropolitan area (in many states, you can get a
library card at any library in your state assuming they take state-level
funding, so if you live in a small town in California, for example, you can
still get a library card at the SF Public Library and the LA Public Library so
you'll have access to larger catalogs), there's usually quite a bit that's
available.

~~~
qntmfred
New York Public Library here. the selection is definitely better than smaller
library systems, but the experience still sucks compared to something like
netflix. between finding the books I want in the catalog, never mind a decent
recommendation system, reserving ebooks on a waitlist and finally getting a
rented ebook onto my devices, it was so tedious that I just stopped bothering
trying to check out ebooks from the library, despite the fact that it's free.

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__Joker
At least from the good reads I gather hardly people read more that 2 books per
month. In a way $10 dollars is just the same thing, assuming $5 dollar is your
average price of the book. If anything Amazon will profit from the all the
users who read less but simply subscribe to it.

It feels like gym membership for books.

~~~
burkaman
You also get the benefit of instant access to a huge catalog, though.
Sometimes you just want to look up a quote in a book you read last year, or
get a sample of an author that was recommended to you, or look up the context
of a passage you saw quoted online, etc. That alone is not worth $10 a month,
but it does add a little value beyond just reading full books.

~~~
__Joker
Agree, it feels more library. I am not questioning the benefits. The problem
is vast majority of readers don't need these benefits.

~~~
keerthiko
I think the word "problem" is a bit of a stretch. It may not have as much
_actual value_ \-- dollar cost of books read in a month/$9.99 -- as the
_perceived value_ \-- unlimited. However, a successful product is about
perceived value, not necessarily actual value. As the parent comment mentions,
that convenience of looking something up without worrying about costs or
alternate searching, and the freedom to not have to worry about the price of
individual books, or having a shared kindle unlimited for a whole family with
kids you want to encourage to read, are all worth something to a customer that
can't be assessed in dollars. And of course, it's up to the customer to
evaluate if they actually have the needs fulfilled by the product.

It's definitely a brilliant business move on Amazon's part.

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baddox
I'm guessing the ebooks will only be available on true Kindle devices. I just
wanted to use the Prime Lending Library for the first time last week, and was
disappointed that books can only be rented and viewed on Kindle devices, so my
iPad and PC reader are out of luck. They don't broadcast this fact very
clearly either, since to me "Kindle device" implies any official Kindle
client.

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bluedevil2k
Oyster already offers this ([http://oysterbooks.com](http://oysterbooks.com))
- my wife loves it.

~~~
adestefan
They have one of the most atrocious title tags I have ever seen: "Beautifully
digital reading for everyone"

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matthewbauer
Amazon to launch Netflix for eBooks seems more accurate. They're is no
guarantee they have everything ready to launch it even this week.

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ajb
'Netflix for ebooks' doesn't sound good if it means books that disappear out
of availability like programs do on netflix.

~~~
teach
Why not? My wife and really enjoy Netflix. We can't always watch a
_particular_ program, but we can always find something worth watching.

In fact, sometimes it's the very fact that the show we were "looking for"
isn't currently available that pushes us to try something new.

~~~
dublinben
I would be absolutely livid if Amazon (and I) lost access to a book while I
was in the middle of reading it. People just consume books and video content
so differently, that I don't think makes sense for too many people.

~~~
QuotedForTruth
Seems like they could just announce removals 30 days in advance which would
give you plenty of time to finish a normal book. They could also stop new
downloads of a book during this or a shorter period to prevent people from
starting a book without time to finish it. To those that havent started the
book, it would just appear that its already been removed from availability.
Some kind of a warning of how much longer it will be available on the device
would also be helpful as long as its not intrusive.

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eglover
This might actually make audible worth the money which is way overpriced right
now.

~~~
eglover
(And who doesn't loathe the Audible ebook downloader software? I don't think
it's been really updated since the 90's.)

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dang
A dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8042451](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8042451).

