I read the entire "Game of Thrones" book series and "The Count of Monte-Cristo" (and most of the other reading I've done in the last two years) on a iPod touch.
The new 5th Generation screen is quite nice in Landscape mode.
I do most of my reading on mass transit, so carrying 100 books in my shirt pocket means I always have something to read.
I initially read on a Kindle 3rd Generation eReader, but they were pretty fragile (I had three break on me in 18-months time), so I got used to using my iPod Touch. I'm so used to it now, I've lost interest in reading physical books.
"Oyster takes inspiration from the famous literary line in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, "the world's mine oyster." All the pleasures of reading are yours for the taking, no matter where you go."
Really the name belongs to a bivalve and everyone else is ripping off an entire species. I'm tired of thinking people are going to be able to pay for their tube fare with a mollusc - only to find out after reading it's really some silly smartcard!
Don't get why this post was being downvoted when I saw it. Trademark allows for similarly-named companies in different businesses. The point is to prevent confusion, not cause a land-rush to monopolize common words.
You're right - I guess I'm thinking more of the Kindle business model (I was thrown off by all the Amazon references). With Audible, I believe you have to stream the books, but when I want to listen to an audio book, I usually don't have a reliable connection (e.g. road trips). It would be great if you could download the audio (even temporarily, much as I hate DRM) as part of the subscription. Since I'm now talking about a different model entirely, I'm afraid I'm well and truly off-topic. Sorry :)
I did the Audible free trial for a month and you can download through the app instead of streaming. It's worth a try if you're looking for something like that.
The model is just too compelling for consumers: Pay a reasonable price, get access to all the content you want without having to own it
I quite like owning my books, actually. There's already an alternative to doing so, called a library; since the book sales business did quite well int he pre-internet days despite the widespread availability of libraries, I'm not sure why the author thinks a functioning e-book library is suddenly going to bring sales to a screeching halt.
Books in the library are rivalrous: for a given physical book, at most one person can borrow it at a given time. There are nontrivial costs (time and/or money) to copying a physical book.
e-books, in the current incarnation, are not rivalrous and are much easier to copy and disseminate.
eBook lending licenses as brokered by the companies that provide this service to libraries (e.g. Overdrive) usually restrict the number of "copies" of an eBook that can be loaned at one time, and patrons often have to put themselves on waiting lists for books the same as they would have to for a checked out physical book. Obtaining additional available "copies" for popular eBooks is functionally the same as the library buying extra copies of a physical book.
I feel the same way. I love owning my stuff. My MP3 files, my ebooks, my hardcopies, vinyls, cd's, etc. All this "in the cloud" stuff just adds an extra overhead to my already stressful life. "Will this company perish and all my shit be gone? Is it secure?" are questions I always think about.
When I have that physical copy, the (mostly) only person I have to blame is myself for not maintaining my items integrity.
I used to love to own stuff. Had great pride of my mp3 collection with pristine ID3 tags, my Star Trek TNG collection, or the piles of magazines and books...
After my last couple of moves between cities, I got tired of having to carry stuff around. Or to keep things organized, sync'ed, backed up across multiple devices. What a waste of time and money.
Can't say I won this battle yet, but at least I started to be more rational. Started donating half my books, and only purchasing ebooks (except for programming languages; still prefer the dead tree version). Also gave away DVDs, almost all CDs (still need to rip a few rare ones before giving away). Threw away most magazines, except for MakeMag and Circuit Cellar.
A couple of more moves and I'll be really free :)
ps: speaking of donating stuff, a friend created an awesome startup for exactly that reason: http://www.bondsy.com. Rather useful for things that you still care, but it's time to find a new home for it.
In some libraries you pay an annual membership fee, not dissimilar to the flat monthly fee paid to Netflix (and now Oyster), as opposed to the per-rental fee Blockbuster used to charge.
There are such things as private libraries (here's one in SF: http://www.milibrary.org/), and public libraries in other countries have different policies.
I like owning books, too, until I had to move continents and sell my entire library.
I think folks are missing one aspect of the Netflix-style experience; discovery. Sure, the joy of flipping through the sci-fi/fantasy section in the local bookstore or library is an unparallelled experience -- but I've found book discovery via Amazon to provide me with far more than simply gazing at shelves.
It's not only the product consumption experience that is changing, but how we interact with books in general. And while I'm a big fan of libraries, we're all getting used to metadata, social annotations, reviews and suggestions -- add that to the ease of access an 'all you can eat' approach provides, and I for one am looking forward to where it leads. (mind you, I read anything from 10 to 20 books a month, so I'd definitely benefit from this kind of service!)
You read 10-20 books a month? interesting, either you have a lot of time or your a really fast reader I can do maybe 7. What's your secret? teach me Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I read at night and on the train, plus often binge-read at weekends. Note that I mostly count fiction; I don't get through technical books so fast, but some other non-fiction is readable. Been a book addict since I was very small, and tablets have greatly helped. :-)
The "Netflix for books" is, and has long been, libraries. And yes, almost all of them have an ebook program in addition to their huge supply of paper books.
It isn't great. But many libraries have rolled out a new version of Overdrive that's noticably better (even if it's the same implemention, it's at least less confusing). For example, NYPL New York doesn't have it yet, but Los Angeles Public Library does: http://lapl.lib.overdrive.com/
Our local libraries recently started an ebook program. However, copyright restrictions mean they aren't allowed to loan a single 'copy' out to more than one person at once. With the relatively small number of ebook copies available compared to the number of library users, last time I checked there was a long waiting list for most books. Perhaps ironically, it is quicker to go to the library and borrow a paper copy. (The irony being that one of the advantages of ebooks over paper books is that you don't have to wait for them to be delivered)
I suspect that as e-books become more popular, libraries are going to license them in larger quantities. They're a big cost saver for libraries since they take no space to store, no labor to re-shelve and can't be damaged or stolen.
The trouble with this is that without legislation in place to control the pricing of e-books as sold to libraries, e-book publishers use a number of tricks, from significantly higher pricing to making each license only valid for a set number of borrows before another license has to be bought, which negates the "they can't be damaged" benefit.
There's still a lot of bullshit licensing, like ebooks that can only be checked out a finite number of times, in order to reflect the average shelf life of physical books.
Frankly, the e-book programs for the last few libraries I've been around have been awful. Hard to use, one was Windows only (we don't have Windows at home), selection of really lousy books... Basically, anything else that shows up presents a compelling alternative to the library ebook systems I've seen.
I agree with the other responses that library ebook programs are hamstrung by the fact that they can only lend out as many copies as they "own". So if you want a popular book in ebook form, good luck. Might as well just buy it considering how long the wait is.
For $9.95 a month, I'd rather support my local library/bookstore. Unlike movies, where I could watch 5-6 on a really lazy Saturday, books take quite a bit more time. I'm a pretty regular reader and I'm lucky if I get through 2 books a month.
I read about the average (outlier) person, so for $9.95 I'd rather own the one or two books I can read that month, which would cost close (give or take) to the same amount as they're offering.
my thoughts exactly. they're supposedly targeting the casual reader, but how many casual readers read more than 1 book a month? at one book a month the pricing model makes no sense. it's really at 4 books a month where it starts to look cheap, but 1 book a week is a very steep hill for most people.
reading is an active activity unlike tv or music which are inherently passive. IMO that makes a big difference in how much we can consume the medium.
I would say this is for those that can get through 4-5+ books a month (like me and others I know). Not for everyone, but I know many that would find this better than having an actual monthly book budget. Libraries also have similar programs for ebooks (or at least mine does).
Yup I discovered from a friend that my library has a similar ebook checkout program. I wonder how the terms and selections compare, since libraries seem to be doing an inept job at advertising this feature which could potentially just kill this startup
I read on my commute to/from work. Not sure about the # of books I finish a month, but I can say that I may be willing to "experiment" more with books I wouldn't have otherwise. No downside to read the first 3 chapters and then switch to another book, if you don't like it. I think, therefore, that it might be a nice DISCOVERY tool.
good point. The only issue with Amazon that I found was that the first sample chapter might be 5 pages long, so you don't really get a flavor of the book. I might be wrong though (maybe they now do it by total length rather than chapters)
It depends on the selection and how well it's categorized, a huge, searchable virtual library of old and rare texts would definitely be worth $10 to me. If it's just the NYTimes best sellers, probably not.
But my mom and her friends would probably go for it, the absurd price of ebooks turned them all into pirates, old ladies shouldn't know what Demonoid is but they all do. Getting them to spend $400 on an iPad, that's a different story.
Friend of mine said recently "What about Netflix for books? Why doesn't it exist?"
I first pointed out libraries and then made exactly your point about consumption. People burn through TV show episodes or movies more than they do books. And on top of that, I'd say a broader set of the population watch TV/movies than read books, which makes for a smaller market.
I am currently part-way through 6-8 books. I haven't managed to finish one in about 12 months!
I think people not finishing their books it probably one of the stronger use cases of this though. You wouldn't have to buy 8 books only to not finish them, you could just read them on Oyster.
Though admittedly that doesn't cover the library counter point.
This is a tough sell. An iPhone screen is not great to read on and to get enough mileage out of this you'd have to read a couple of books a month on it. If I could get something like this on my Kindle which is actually good on your eyes I might consider it.
I really wish someone would make a netflix for audio-books. I'm aware of Audible and it's competitors, but they all seem to limit you to 1 or 2 books per month.
Why hasn't this already been done by Amazon, or Google Books? I understand Prime has something similar, but only for select books. Is this purely a publisher licensing issue? If so, wouldn't Amazon/Google have more leverage to make it happen?
If you read the article, Oyster is for select books too (100k, vs. Amazon's 350k). But for Amazon you have to have a Kindle. Won't work with the Kindle app on tablets, phones, or desktop.
An online library has the same advantage over a physical library as Amazon has over physical retail stores and Netflix has over physical video rental stores: massive long-tail inventory.
All-you-can-buffet movies/tv and now books is done. That same for home renting, car renting, vacationing, plane flying, private schooling, food eating needs to be done. Huge profits for hackers that can do it.
> All-you-can-buffet movies/tv and now books is done. That same for home renting, car renting, vacationing, plane flying, private schooling, food eating needs to be done. Huge profits for hackers that can do it.
I must be missing the joke, but are you really suggesting that what the world is missing is all-you-can-eat food? Like … a buffet?
Congrats to the team on the launch! I know they've been hard at work for quite a while. Getting deals with the necessary publishers could not have been easy without the clout of a large brand name like Amazon.
I'm sure the iPhone-only offering might prove controversial, but I don't doubt that an iPad version will be coming soon. iPhone-only makes sense for me - I prefer to read books in short chunks: on the Muni, waiting in line, a few minutes before bed, etc. The Kindle app has done an excellent job of making the best of the limited real estate, I'm optimistic that Oyster will do so as well.
- It's iPhone only. This will, of course, change. They have to launch somewhere first.
- We already have public libraries and Overdrive. Sure, they are out there but they don't solve the problem that Oyster does. If you just want to flip through a bunch of books and see what you feel like reading, your current options are to go to a physical bookstore or library or hope Amazon or Google Books has enough to satisfy you in their limited previews. Imagine that as you're reading a book, you come across a reference another and being able to easily jump to the reference with no hassles like putting the book on hold (as is almost always the case on Overdrive) or reaching a check out limit or having to get in the car and go find a hard copy. Even the Kindle lenders library heavily restricts the number of books you can use at once. Having the full text of an ever-growing library at your fingertips is, if using Spotify is a close enough parallel, something that can't be fully appreciated until it's experienced.
- Price. If you usually buy at least one book a month and you can assume you'll probably do that indefinitely then it makes sense to instead start paying Oyster (or similar) indefinitely to get not one book a month, but all the books.
- Authors don't get paid. I think it's to early to say whether this will work out for authors or not. We don't know the business model. If it doesn't work for authors and publishers, they'll stop using it and Oyster will have to change their business model. In fact, this is the biggest risk as I see it. Netflix started with a good catalog and, for awhile, had a great catalog of movies. Now they're losing content and having to create their own, most of which I have no interest in. If publishers were to fall out of love with Oyster, Oyster's value would be severely diminished so they'll have to do what it takes to keep publishers (and hopefully by extension, authors) happy. One thing to consider, and maybe this is not as common as I'm guessing, but there are so many times where I've read a Kindle book and decided to buy a paper version to give the book a physical presence in my house. For certain authors, this could mean getting paid twice when people read their books.
I couldn't find any indication if this mailed physical books or is just eBooks. Disclaimer, I only skimmed article (its breathless hype style is too annoying/worthless to read in detail).
This would be a neat idea if it's free considering I can read as many books as I want for free at the library "paperback" might I add. Sorry but the library deserves my support more than your service.
97 comments
[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 173 ms ] threadI propose: "I audio-read an audio-book".
The new 5th Generation screen is quite nice in Landscape mode.
I initially read on a Kindle 3rd Generation eReader, but they were pretty fragile (I had three break on me in 18-months time), so I got used to using my iPod Touch. I'm so used to it now, I've lost interest in reading physical books.
http://www.oyster.com/
Or the Oyster travel card:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14836.aspx
?
"Oyster takes inspiration from the famous literary line in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, "the world's mine oyster." All the pleasures of reading are yours for the taking, no matter where you go."
You only get 1 book a month with the base Audible subscription, but you get pretty heavy discounts on purchasing books.
You also get to keep the audiobook.
I quite like owning my books, actually. There's already an alternative to doing so, called a library; since the book sales business did quite well int he pre-internet days despite the widespread availability of libraries, I'm not sure why the author thinks a functioning e-book library is suddenly going to bring sales to a screeching halt.
e-books, in the current incarnation, are not rivalrous and are much easier to copy and disseminate.
When I have that physical copy, the (mostly) only person I have to blame is myself for not maintaining my items integrity.
I used to love to own stuff. Had great pride of my mp3 collection with pristine ID3 tags, my Star Trek TNG collection, or the piles of magazines and books...
After my last couple of moves between cities, I got tired of having to carry stuff around. Or to keep things organized, sync'ed, backed up across multiple devices. What a waste of time and money.
Can't say I won this battle yet, but at least I started to be more rational. Started donating half my books, and only purchasing ebooks (except for programming languages; still prefer the dead tree version). Also gave away DVDs, almost all CDs (still need to rip a few rare ones before giving away). Threw away most magazines, except for MakeMag and Circuit Cellar.
A couple of more moves and I'll be really free :)
ps: speaking of donating stuff, a friend created an awesome startup for exactly that reason: http://www.bondsy.com. Rather useful for things that you still care, but it's time to find a new home for it.
I only buy ebooks now. I use Spotify. I've sold my CD's to a used record store. I've stopped collecting mp3's.
Not having a bunch of physical cruft (and not having to manage it) is better.
University libraries are funded by tuition, and may allow non-university access for a fee.
I think folks are missing one aspect of the Netflix-style experience; discovery. Sure, the joy of flipping through the sci-fi/fantasy section in the local bookstore or library is an unparallelled experience -- but I've found book discovery via Amazon to provide me with far more than simply gazing at shelves.
It's not only the product consumption experience that is changing, but how we interact with books in general. And while I'm a big fan of libraries, we're all getting used to metadata, social annotations, reviews and suggestions -- add that to the ease of access an 'all you can eat' approach provides, and I for one am looking forward to where it leads. (mind you, I read anything from 10 to 20 books a month, so I'd definitely benefit from this kind of service!)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/06/ebooks-on-borro...
Based on: http://gawker.com/5971571/are-you-an-above+average-book-read...
I read about the average (outlier) person, so for $9.95 I'd rather own the one or two books I can read that month, which would cost close (give or take) to the same amount as they're offering.
reading is an active activity unlike tv or music which are inherently passive. IMO that makes a big difference in how much we can consume the medium.
However, Amazon offers samples of eBooks (most of them I believe) and they offer that service for free.
So while $9.95 is slightly cheaper, it just doesn't seem worth it to me. I'd rather pay more and keep adding to my book collection.
But my mom and her friends would probably go for it, the absurd price of ebooks turned them all into pirates, old ladies shouldn't know what Demonoid is but they all do. Getting them to spend $400 on an iPad, that's a different story.
I first pointed out libraries and then made exactly your point about consumption. People burn through TV show episodes or movies more than they do books. And on top of that, I'd say a broader set of the population watch TV/movies than read books, which makes for a smaller market.
I am currently part-way through 6-8 books. I haven't managed to finish one in about 12 months!
Though admittedly that doesn't cover the library counter point.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=10007398...
I must be missing the joke, but are you really suggesting that what the world is missing is all-you-can-eat food? Like … a buffet?
I'm sure the iPhone-only offering might prove controversial, but I don't doubt that an iPad version will be coming soon. iPhone-only makes sense for me - I prefer to read books in short chunks: on the Muni, waiting in line, a few minutes before bed, etc. The Kindle app has done an excellent job of making the best of the limited real estate, I'm optimistic that Oyster will do so as well.
- It's iPhone only. This will, of course, change. They have to launch somewhere first.
- We already have public libraries and Overdrive. Sure, they are out there but they don't solve the problem that Oyster does. If you just want to flip through a bunch of books and see what you feel like reading, your current options are to go to a physical bookstore or library or hope Amazon or Google Books has enough to satisfy you in their limited previews. Imagine that as you're reading a book, you come across a reference another and being able to easily jump to the reference with no hassles like putting the book on hold (as is almost always the case on Overdrive) or reaching a check out limit or having to get in the car and go find a hard copy. Even the Kindle lenders library heavily restricts the number of books you can use at once. Having the full text of an ever-growing library at your fingertips is, if using Spotify is a close enough parallel, something that can't be fully appreciated until it's experienced.
- Price. If you usually buy at least one book a month and you can assume you'll probably do that indefinitely then it makes sense to instead start paying Oyster (or similar) indefinitely to get not one book a month, but all the books.
- Authors don't get paid. I think it's to early to say whether this will work out for authors or not. We don't know the business model. If it doesn't work for authors and publishers, they'll stop using it and Oyster will have to change their business model. In fact, this is the biggest risk as I see it. Netflix started with a good catalog and, for awhile, had a great catalog of movies. Now they're losing content and having to create their own, most of which I have no interest in. If publishers were to fall out of love with Oyster, Oyster's value would be severely diminished so they'll have to do what it takes to keep publishers (and hopefully by extension, authors) happy. One thing to consider, and maybe this is not as common as I'm guessing, but there are so many times where I've read a Kindle book and decided to buy a paper version to give the book a physical presence in my house. For certain authors, this could mean getting paid twice when people read their books.
Until then I wish them luck and sincerely hope this sort of business model takes off.
Now I'm not sure who was right...
They should call it "Netflix for ebooks".
If just eBooks, total complete meh.