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

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Shane R

Q: Is Kindle Unlimited available to customers living outside the US?
A: Kindle Unlimited is currently available only to US customers but we plan to expand this service to other countries. Please stay tuned.

According to Nate at the DigitalReader blog they are aiming to go international in Sept/Oct. He also thinks that was the pre-leak launch date, which might explains the paucity of BPH titles.

[elemenoP]

Is this taking the place of Kindle Prime Lending Library? It looks like it to me, but I can't quite tell because I'm on someone else's Prime account.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Is this taking the place of Kindle Prime Lending Library? It looks like it to me, but I can't quite tell because I'm on someone else's Prime account.

I think it is, but I can't quite tell either. I looked on the author dash and we have to (once again) be exclusive to Amazon to participate so all those things are kind of lumped into one basket of participation.

Since you pay for it separately, you don't have to be in prime so far as I can tell from the announcement.

[SteveK]

I'll certainly give this a try. I very much enjoy my Scribd subscription, but much prefer to read on my Kindle rather than a tablet. Many of the titles on Scribd that I have in my library aren't available on Kindle Unlimited (yet), so it's definitely not time to cancel Scribd. But I will definitely give this new service a try for at least the free 30-day trial.

SteveK

[pwalker8]

Looked at it, thinking this might be good for my mother. Alas, content is king. None of her favorite authors are in it. I can't say that I like the search engine. I typed in Mary Higgins Clark (my mother's favorite author) and got a long list of books, none of which were by Mary Higgins Clark.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Is this taking the place of Kindle Prime Lending Library? It looks like it to me, but I can't quite tell because I'm on someone else's Prime account.

I read through the rules. They are two separate programs and looks like both will be continued at this point. Both require authors (and least indie ones) to be exclusive to Amazon in order to participate. BUMMER. They do a lot of free advertising when these things first go live.

[tubemonkey]

I went to Kindle eBooks on my PC and searched for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Under "Deliver to:", I selected Kindle 4 and then punched the "Read for Free" button. After that, I turned on my Kindle 4, activated WiFi, and my KU book was delivered.

Super simple

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Is this taking the place of Kindle Prime Lending Library? It looks like it to me, but I can't quite tell because I'm on someone else's Prime account.

The terms are similar but I doubt Amazon is going to give Prime customers a full ten book perk. They might give a discount, the way they do with Freetime Unlimited.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I went to Kindle eBooks and searched for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Under "Deliver to:", I selected Kindle 4 and then punched the "Read for Free" button. After that, I turn on my Kindle 4, activated WiFi, and my KU book was delivered.

Super simple

Try reading it on your tablet.
A friend of mine is wondering if he can share the subscription with his wife.
I expect it will be doable.

[booklover6]

10 books at a time limit.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by booklover6

10 books at a time limit.

Downloads, yes.
But can more than one be open at the same time on different devices?

I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but verification would be nice.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Try reading it on your tablet.
A friend of mine is wondering if he can share the subscription with his wife.
I expect it will be doable.

Able to read it simultaneously on my Kindle 4, Nexus 7, and Fire HD7.

[Top100EbooksRank]

I don't think Amazon want ebook subscription service to take off, but its hand was forced.
Apple/Itunes didn't want a music subscription service either.
Amazon doesn't want to be like Apple in that regard (way too late into the game).

Either way, customers are the BIG WINNERS in this regard.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygr...iption-market/
When Amazon Acts Like A Start-up: Why Amazon Has Entered The Ebook Subscription Market

In fact, Kindle Unlimited competes not only with Scribd and Oyster, but also it competes with Amazon’s more traditional retail ebook offering through its Kindle platform. Why would Amazon create a service that so directly competes with its main ebook offering? Why would it want its heavy readers, who may spend hundreds of dollars a month on ebooks through its Kindle platform to instead transition to paying $9.99 for much of the same?

Because Amazon is acting like the start-ups that are trying to disintermediate it. Scribd and Oyster are billed within the industry and to publishers as alternatives to Amazon, new ways they can reach readers without ceding more ebook market share to Amazon. If the strategy should prove successful, Amazon would lose buy-one-get-one ebook business to the subscription model anyway, but it won’t be reaping the rewards of such a transition. If the company launches its own version of an ebook subscription service, it can head off the disintermediators and reap some of the rewards of the transition to subscription consumption, taking a page out of this oft-reference start-up playbook.

Should the model take off and users read more ebooks the same way they watch movies and shows on Netflix and listen to music on Spotify, then it will be a horse race between the leading services — and Amazon wants to make sure it has a thoroughbred in the field.


p.s. Now that Amazon has enter the fray, it won't be long before Google, Apple will have one too.

[fjtorres]

BTW, the inevitable "Amazon is destroying literature" reactions have begun:
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/...717-zu0g4.html

Apparent plans by Amazon to test a monthly subscription library for e-books has been savaged by Australian booksellers as cultural vandalism and an attack on author royalties.

Kindle Unlimited was yet another attempt by Amazon to send a wrecking ball through its competition, said Joel Becker, chief executive of the Australian Booksellers Association.
''I think the industry – authors, publishers and creators – are finally waking up to what booksellers have already known: that Amazon’s business practice create a mammoth problem for an essential cultural industry,'' he said.

Anybody surprised?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Downloads, yes.
But can more than one be open at the same time on different devices?

I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but verification would be nice.

I'll test it a little later with a second book.