I have argued before that there will eventually be a subscription model for ebooks. A lot of folks were for or against the idea, with some being quite skeptical. Read the discussion
HERE
With the KP lending plan, Amazon may have backed into something like a subscription plan, as one poster says
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On the other hand, who else is offering a subscription service, which is basically what Amazon Prime is? Join for $79/year, get 12 books for free, video streaming, and free shipping.
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(Hat tip J. Strnad)
Another way to look at it is if you pay $79 a year , you get 12 books, plus some nice benefits. Now Amazon didn't really intend it to be an ebook subscription service, but its really caught on like wildfire among indie authors and from an original pool of just a few thousand books , there are 47,000 books in the pool, with thousands more being added every day. At least a few of those books are bestsellers like the Hunger Games trilogy.
As more and more authors sign up, and maybe more bestselling authors, the book subscription feature (and video subscription feature) might become even more attractive than the free shipping feature which was originally the main benefit of Amazon Prime.
There's precedent for this- Netflix's streaming option was originally just an add-on to its DVD rental service. Now its a separate-and for many, the PREFERRED option .
So what does the forum think? Is it possible that Amazon may have backed into the beginnings of a viable ebook subscription model?