Amazon is looking to expand further upon its Kindle eBook system, with plans being put in place to launch a premium Kindle library for eBook rentals.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon could launch a Spotify-style service for Kindle whereby customers pay a set annual fee and are then entitled to unlimited eBook rentals throughout the year from an online library of titles.
Amazon is apparently already in talks with major book publishers to build a digital library that would provide such a service.
“Amazon has told publishers it is considering creating a digital-book library featuring older titles, people familiar with the talks said.” – a snippet from the WSJ article states.
The service is to be offered to customers of Amazon’s Prime service, which currently costs £49/$79 per year and provides unlimited free next day delivery on millions of items from the website, plus various other shipping deals.
In the U.S, Amazon Prime customers are also entitled to stream movies and TV shows through an online portal provided by Amazon, so the addition of an eBook rental service could fit in quite nicely.
The movie and TV show features don’t come with Amazon Prime in the UK and Europe, so we’re currently skeptical about it coming across the pond.
Access to a huge online library of eBooks and the ability to rent and read titles as you please sounds like a great idea to us, and would sure be a big hit with Kindle owners and bookworms alike.
With Kindle books outselling hard copies in some markets, it’s hard to not see this type of service taking off.
Would you subscribe to a Spotify-style service for eBooks? If so, how much would you pay per month for the privilege?