Amazon is testing “Kindle Unlimited,” an ebook subscription service for $9.99/month

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Amazon must have something set up because if a book downloads to a PC, it can have its DRM bypassed. I doubt they would allow us to retain all 600,000 titles for $9.99.

Amazon's new Prime music allows downloads to mobile devices, but not PCs.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

According to the article "any device" includes audiobooks. I think I'd cancel my Audible subscription for this, and with Whispersync support, I'd probably buy the Kindle edition of my current audiobook as well.

Win-win for both me and Amazon.

That article also mentioned that audiobooks meant "7,351 Whispersync for Voice" titles. That's not very many. I'm not sure Amazon wants to compete with Audible on this.

Another difference between this service, Oyster and Scribd appears to be the availability of audiobooks. The test page lists 7,351 “Whispersync for Voice” titles.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Amazon's new Prime music allows downloads to mobile devices, but not PCs.

Amazon shows us on the Amazon Unlimited splash page books on a PC. They probably will only allow, as fjtorres says, books to be read in the Cloud Reader.

Books can be read offline using the Cloud Reader so they are still downloaded somewhere on the PC but I don't know where.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by darryl

It appears at the moment that a subscription model is one of the more likely winners when the major new business models emerge. However, such a system may create a problem for authors as to whether they will be able to extract a reasonable remuneration from such a system. Presumably it will be designed with little real influence by authors, and I can see them being paid a pittance.

Well, Indie authors will have more than a "little real influence".
(At least as to which of their titles go on KU.)
Tradpub authors will have to rely on their contracts and lawyers.

Subscriptions have big time marketing potential but the publisher is going to have to be careful which books are offered (and possibly when). For indies, used to price throttling and gateway pricing, adjusting to the subscription model will be easy and might represent a step up from perma-free and $0.99 series hook books. (Quite a few authors have reported good revenues from the Prime Lending Library so it may represent a net gain for them.)

Of course, Indies have an added advantage: whatever the per-read payout, they won't have to share it.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Amazon shows us on the Amazon Unlimited splash page books on a PC. They probably will only allow, as fjtorres says, books to be read in the Cloud Reader.

Books can be read offline so are still downloaded using the Cloud Reader somewhere on the PC but I don't know where.

That is how the other subscription services work: proprietary closed reading apps.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Books can be read offline using the Cloud Reader so they are still downloaded somewhere on the PC but I don't know where.

http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/offline/storage/

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/offline/storage/

Thanks. Encrypted databases. All Greek to me

[Top100EbooksRank]

Look like Amazon made an ad for it

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

That article also mentioned that audiobooks meant "7,351 Whispersync for Voice" titles. That's not very many. I'm not sure Amazon wants to compete with Audible on this.

Audible is Amazon. But only a subset of Audible's offerings are set up for Whispersync for Voice. I'm sure they would like all of them to have this capability (so they could sell more audiobooks and or ebooks), but there will always be some audiobooks without Kindle editions, and I get the impression that the process of setting up sync is not 100% automated, or that it requires some paperwork to clear the rights.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Top100EbooksRank

Look like Amazon made an ad for it

Free 30 day trial.
That is going to be pricey.
(To Amazon.)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Audible is Amazon. But only a subset of Audible's offerings are set up for Whispersync for Voice. I'm sure they would like all of them to have this capability (so they could sell more audiobooks and or ebooks), but there will always be some audiobooks without Kindle editions, and I get the impression that the process of setting up sync is not 100% automated, or that it requires some paperwork to clear the rights.

"Audible is Amazon."

I know. That's why I don't think the Whispersync offerings will expand much or that Amazon will just offer straight Audible titles not connected to Whispersync. Played wrong, Amazon could damage the current Audible subscription service.

Currently, Audible has over 50,000 Whispersync titles in its catalog of over 150,000 titles. I have no idea how many of those are unique titles. Frequently, Audible will have more than one version of a title; and sometimes five or six versions.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Amazon shows us on the Amazon Unlimited splash page books on a PC. They probably will only allow, as fjtorres says, books to be read in the Cloud Reader.

I'm sure that's how they'll do it. I can stream Prime music on my PC using the Amazon Music Player, but can't download it for offline playback.

Books can be read offline using the Cloud Reader so they are still downloaded somewhere on the PC but I don't know where.

But only books you own. Just like music can be played offline using the Music Player; but only music you own. I'm quite certain that Amazon won't allow offline KU reading using the Cloud Reader.

[Yapyap]

Would they really have a Kindle Unlimited without letting people download the books to and read them on their actual eInk Kindles, though?

With music, Amazon can restrict it, with apps, to streaming; I can't see how they could do that with eInk Kindles? Scribd, Oyster etc don't have that issue - they don't have their own eInk reader, so going with just apps is sensible enough. For Amazon, the eInk Kindle is what many of their customers and Kindle users think of when e-reading, and there would be a reasonable expectation of being able to read books on a device Amazon created for that purpose.

And if you can download a book to the Kindle, it can also be put onto the computer, cannot it?

How are loans (whether library or person-to-person loans) currently handled by Amazon? I've never used either, not being American, but I gather there is some kind of expiration built in? Does it work also when the Kindle is offline? Can the loaned books be downloaded via computer?

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

Would they really have a Kindle Unlimited without letting people download the books to and read them on their actual eInk Kindles, though?

With music, Amazon can restrict it, with apps, to streaming; I can't see how they could do that with eInk Kindles? Scribd, Oyster etc don't have that issue - they don't have their own eInk reader, so going with just apps is sensible enough. For Amazon, the eInk Kindle is what many of their customers and Kindle users think of when e-reading, and there would be a reasonable expectation of being able to read books on a device Amazon created for that purpose.

And if you can download a book to the Kindle, it can also be put onto the computer, cannot it?

How are loans (whether library or person-to-person loans) currently handled by Amazon? I've never used either, not being American, but I gather there is some kind of expiration built in? Does it work also when the Kindle is offline? Can the loaned books be downloaded via computer?

There is nothing preventing the Kindle to download books and deal with drm the same way an app do. In such a way the user can't get it out.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

Would they really have a Kindle Unlimited without letting people download the books to and read them on their actual eInk Kindles, though?

Their website and video shows the books on an eink Kindle. Whether it can be downloaded or not I don't know.