Two companies caught my eye recently, and they both want to be the "Netflix" of renting ties and audiobooks. AL.com reports that TieTry.com is offering a subscription service for neckties.
Tindle and his partner, David Powers, recently launched Tie Try LLC, a company that marries the Netflix business model with the necktie.
In less than three weeks, the company already has a few dozen subscribers paying between $12 and $30 a month, and Tindle said the business is on its way to beating first-month projections.
Macworld reviewed the new Audiobooks.com, launched by Simply Audiobooks, a subscription service that gives you unlimited access to a library of audiobooks for $25 per month.
The real test for a service like this is, of course, the selection. Audibooks.com claims to have “more than 10,000 best sellers, top new releases and classic favorites,” and if you browse through the selection, you can see certain genres are fairly well-stocked, while others are a bit light. When I checked, there were 957 books in the Mystery, Thriller genre, 314 in Romance, and 714 in Science Fiction & Fantasy, which are all fairly low numbers compared to, say, Audible.com. Horror contains only 83 books, but Business has 772. Drilling down, there are only 11 books in European History, eight literary biographies (which oddly includes Einstein, and Hemingway’s novel A Moveable Feast), and six Shakespeare plays. In other words, if you’re a big consumer of audiobooks, you may not find much to listen to in Audiobooks.com’s current selection.
Over the years we've seen a number of companies trying to be the "Netflix" of toys, books, and other things. What service would you like to see as a subscription that we haven't seen before?
does tietry have to pay anything to the writers of the show The League, taco made the same company called neckflix, same exact thing.
Posted by: mike | January 28, 2012 at 10:45 PM
i'd like to see the writers for the league do something about that netflix for ties business.
Posted by: aaron | January 28, 2012 at 10:45 PM
ties are pretty stupid.
porn is where nf needs to go. Maybe that was the plan when it was to be sheded from NF ?
Between porn & games, I believe rentals could be very viable.
Posted by: rjm | January 29, 2012 at 02:31 AM
The rental of audiobooks will fail with this model.
1. the price ($25/mo.) is way too high. $10, maybe.
2. Most audiobooks, both physical and digital can be had at your local library for the whopping price of ... $0
3. There is a limited market for audiobooks. True, the people who like them are rabid fans. But their numbers are limited ... and not growing. Ergo, renting them would not be a growth business.
Posted by: Big Dave | January 29, 2012 at 12:46 PM
dont't you want stay ye ye ye
Posted by: lacoste uk | January 29, 2012 at 10:32 PM
I use an "Netflix for Art" company called Turning Art. Pretty great.
Posted by: Brian | January 30, 2012 at 12:25 AM
"porn is where nf needs to go."
Streaming porn (that's probably a genre) would likely get them kicked off a few devices. Disc by mail porn? Sticky envelopes. 'Nuff said!
Posted by: George Isaacs | January 30, 2012 at 07:20 PM
Ah, for a practical and pragmatic world where the tie is tossed onto the scrap heap of history where it belongs. Thank goodness I have a high paying job where I can dress casually. I laugh at the guys who have to wear those linen nooses every day.
Posted by: Quiet Desperation | January 31, 2012 at 02:40 AM
there's nothing wrong with suiting up!
It's going to be Legen... Wait for it!
Posted by: Dary | January 31, 2012 at 10:57 AM
ties are stupidd..
Posted by: Free MW3 | January 31, 2012 at 09:33 PM
There are already "Netflix of porn" services, including Greencine which includes it.
Posted by: Galagatron | February 03, 2012 at 01:10 AM