Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
There might be a lot of people that prefer ad hoc to subscriptions if "cost of living rises" and they could easily buy content without DRM at a sensible price.
Big companies prefer selling subscriptions (Satellite, Cable, streaming, music, ebooks & audiobooks) because there is very much more profit and secondly a captive customer. Subscriptions are only good value to consumers that would consume what's available by purchase if the sub didn't exist. The top consumers are also being subsidized by the average subscriber.
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That's true of yearly subscriptions, but the current sellers in the audiobook market offer monthly subscriptions so you're not locked in. And in any case, they allow purchases without a subscription. I spot-checked a couple of books at Spotify and found that Audible and Downpour both showed nonmember prices lower that Spotify's. (Audiobooks.com was a tad higher, and Libro.fm was significantly higher.)
Spotify may expose a new audience to audiobooks and get them to purchase a book or two, but I find it hard to believe that it will retain any audiobook converts, who will find much better prices elsewhere, even without subscribing.