B y Geoffrey A. Fowler
Read more...
A growing stack of companies would like you to pay a monthly fee to read e-books, just like you subscribe to
Netflix
NFLX +1.30%
to binge on movies and TV shows.
Don't bother. Go sign up for a public library card instead.
Really, the public library?
Amazon.com
AMZN +3.03%
recently launched Kindle Unlimited, a $10-per-month service
offering loans of 600,000 e-books. Startups called Oyster and Scribd
offer something similar. It isn't very often that a musty old
institution can hold its own against tech disrupters.
But
it turns out librarians haven't just been sitting around shushing
people while the Internet drove them into irrelevance. More than 90% of American public libraries
have amassed e-book collections you can read on your iPad, and often
even on a Kindle. You don't have to walk into a branch or risk an
overdue fine. And they're totally free.
Related articles
- How Kindle Unlimited compares with Scribd, Oyster (miamiherald.com)
- Amazon Unveils Kindle Subscription (fox10tv.com)
- Oyster, Scribd Comment on Kindle Unlimited (the-digital-reader.com)
- Aiming to Be the Netflix of Books (nytimes.com)
- How Amazon's Kindle Unlimited e-book service compares with rivals Scribd, Oyster (canadianbusiness.com)
- Librarians, Media React to Launch of Kindle Unlimited (thedigitalshift.com)
- On the volume of volumes (economist.com)
- Review: Amazon unlimited e-book service is limited (miamiherald.com)
- Scribd vs Kindle Unlimited - Scribd, for Readers Writers & Libraries (For Now) (felipeadanlerma.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment