Amazon Working on a Netflix-Like Book Rental Service?

The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is working on a Netflix-like book rental service for Amazon Prime members.

Amazon has told publishers it is considering creating a digital-book library featuring older titles, people familiar with the talks said. The content would be available to customers of Amazon Prime, who currently pay the retailer $79 a year for unlimited two-day shipping and for access to a digital library of movies and TV shows.

Amazon would offer book publishers a substantial fee for participating in the program, people familiar with the proposal said. Some of these people said that Amazon would limit the amount of books that Amazon Prime customers could read for free every month.

If Amazon is able to offer customers a decent selection of movies and books plus free shipping for $79 per year, they might steal some customers from Netflix. The rumored $250 Amazon tablet is also an interesting twist.

via Gizmodo.

Comments

[Kayla Aurit]

I all ready have prime, so if they do this, it'd be pretty damn cool. I hate the thought of paying $10+ for books when I read them within 2 days, especially on a kindle. So this would be fantastic.

[D]

this sounds a lot like the LIBRARY - which carries digital books for your kindle (and movies, newspapers, magazines, music, comic books, video games)

[Account Deleted]

I can not stop reading this. And 'so fresh, so full of information, I do not know. I'm glad that people actually write the smart way to show the different sides of him.
Read Tubal Ligation Reversal surgery to get amazing information.

[Joe Nunya]

I read a lot and the only way I would opt for such a program is if it's all part of my Amazon Prime membership and that price stays at the current $79/yr. I spend not a lot, most years between $12k-$15k annually. But little of that is for ebooks which I buy from other sources.

I currently won't buy ANY of the so-called "Agency 6" group of the biggest publishers that account from something like 90% of the titles published since they apparently colluded with Apple to fix prices on ebooks (why were ONLY ebooks part of the new model? I think we all know why.) So this limits my buying options.

I've owned 11-Kindles since the first one. Well, it's because there are enough readers in my family that it seems we just keep buying new models. hahaha...

Unless "Price Fix 6 + One", errr, Agency 6 titles are in this new model and it's included in our Amazon Prime membership AND that does not increase based on how many Kindles are on my account (ie additional Kindles don't require another Prime membership...I forget the current limit but there is one so we are always rotating our Kindles on and off the account but we also spend a fair amount annually with Amazon so nobody is losing here).

We love Amazon but at the same time are not looking to add yet another fixed monthly cost we cannot reduce if needed based on our other financial needs. Even $50/mo can matter if you have learned the value of saving for things you want. We already save for unexpected needs but still know the importance of saving, a lost art in the me-me-me-now-now-now world in which we live.