Quote:
Originally Posted by GlennD
I'm of the opinion that at some point publishers will begin to go the same way as video and music - we'll all just subscribe to a service that provides unlimited access to large libraries of books. I'm pretty sure that Kindle unlimited is sort of a test of that idea already. It's clear to me that media providers in general are highly interested in consumers no longer believing that we own the media that we buy/rent/license, so that we can pay monthly fees that for most users will be more than they would have spent on the media anyway.
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I think it's entirely possible that things will go that way. Personally I prefer to buy my ebooks but I'd be okay with a subscription service if it included all the books I might buy.
With one caveat. I'm 78 years old now and I have a few health issues, not major ones, but they're enough to make me wonder when I'll end up in a nursing home or something like one, instead of the kind of retirement home I'm in now. I can buy books at the moment. My money is my own. Those places keep your money and give you an allowance and at that point the only books I might have available are ones I already own. That makes a subscription service a bit scary.
Barry