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Amazon unleashes kindle unlimited book service
Wednesday 24 September 2014 09:44:13 by Andrew Ferguson

While news about TV streaming services raises questions about how providers will cope with peak time usage, newly launched services like Kindle Unlimited are very unlikely to have an impact since e-books are very compact downloads.

The £7.99 per month Kindle Unlimited service gives subscribers access to some 650,000 titles on Amazon Kindle devices or anything that supports the Kindle Reading App and tempts people in with the 30 day free trial.

How disruptive this will be depends a lot on how big a reader you are, someone who reads just on their annual holiday may subscribe for just one month a year, and the most avid readers may still prefer the feel of real paper. The CD and DVD collection is becoming a thing of the past, how long before bookcases also seem to be an artefact from a bygone era.

Comments

Posted by AndrueC over 3 years ago
That sounds very interesting. I'm currently commuting to/from Birmingham and getting through 2 books a week. £8 a month would be a big improvement.
Posted by awontroba over 3 years ago
I was attracted, until I checked the availability of books by a few of my favourite authors. None. I guess that the 650,000 titles (out of 3,000,000) are from small / self publishers who been unable to resist Amazon's demands.

That said, there is probably some good stuff in there. The problem will be finding it.

I do find the "Megapacks" (many for many genres) and the older Years Best SF good value for money.

I am not a total cheapskate. Of my 300 Kindle titles, quite a few are full price from favourite authors.

Posted by StevenageNeil over 2 years ago
Public libraries offer free membership and most offer free e-book loans.
Posted by ian72 over 2 years ago
Problem with libraries is that most of them don't support the Kindle as they use DRM that is not licensed on the Kindle platform. Fine if you use other e-readers but not for the Kindle.
Posted by kinmel over 2 years ago
My wife and I are avid readers and both have a Kindle.

We buy at least 8 books a month, usually on their day of release. Not one of the last 20 books we have bought are available from Kindle Unlimited.

Probably best renamed "Kindle Remaindered"
Posted by glasspath over 2 years ago
I am not a Kindle user but did buy a Nook e-book reader (at £29) when my local library closed. With this I have borrowed e-books from the Hampshire library service which is useful, but the service is limited by the fact that the library only has a few "copies" (ie useage licences) for most e-books, and none for some publishers, so many books are not available without a wait and can then only be kept for 2 weeks. Hopefully the service will improve over time and may be better in other areas. This Amazon service might have been interesting but only if it gave access to all titles.
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