What happened?
Amazon is now offering its US customers unlimited access to a library of more than 600,000 ebooks, for a subscription fee of $10 (£5.86) per month. This brings to reading the same streaming model popularised by Spotify for music and Netflix for television. Kindle Unlimited includes a host of popular titles – from the Hunger Games series to Harry Potter – but Amazon hasn’t yet signed all major publishers, which limits its catalogue somewhat. Kindle Unlimited also includes more than 2000 audiobooks from Amazon’s Audible service (www.audible.com),
Amazon is now offering its US customers unlimited access to a library of more than 600,000 ebooks, for a subscription fee of $10 (£5.86) per month. This brings to reading the same streaming model popularised by Spotify for music and Netflix for television. Kindle Unlimited includes a host of popular titles – from the Hunger Games series to Harry Potter – but Amazon hasn’t yet signed all major publishers, which limits its catalogue somewhat. Kindle Unlimited also includes more than 2000 audiobooks from Amazon’s Audible service (www.audible.com),
How will it affect you?
Annoyingly, Kindle Unlimited isn’t yet available in the UK and Amazon told us we’tl have to wait and see if and when the service launches over here. Most Amazon products and services are first made available in the US and arrive on these shores within months, but the company will need to see how successful Kindle Unlimited is in the States before it decides whether to expand it or not.
You won’t need a Kindle e-reader to access the Kindle Unlimited service, because you can use the free Kindle apps on your phone or tablet.
What do we think?
Avid readers will love this as much as film and TV buffs love Netflix, because buying just one new novel can cost the price of an entire month’s subscription. However, Amazon must ensure that current bestsellers are available on Kindle Unlimited, or the service will seem less appealing. Simply put, most people watch TV and listen to music much more than they read books. If Kindle Unlimited were a cut-price add-on to its Prime subscription, it might make more sense.
It’s also worth noting that most libraries now offer ebooks for free. They generally use the EPUB format, which is supported by most e-readers except the Kindle, and there are plenty of free reading apps you can use on your mobile device. As with Kindle Unlimited, the choice of books on offer at libraries in digital formats remains limited, but it’s still worth checking your local branch to see what’s on offer.
It’s also worth noting that most libraries now offer ebooks for free. They generally use the EPUB format, which is supported by most e-readers except the Kindle, and there are plenty of free reading apps you can use on your mobile device. As with Kindle Unlimited, the choice of books on offer at libraries in digital formats remains limited, but it’s still worth checking your local branch to see what’s on offer.
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