The success of Spotify and Netflix suggests that consumers are comfortable with this kind of business model. They no longer need to go to a shop to have immediate access to music, movies and TV-shows. The subscription price is lower which leads me to think that consumers might have a higher incentive to subscribe rather than pirating.
In September 2014 Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited in the UK, where users subscribe for £7,99 a month to access 650,000 Kindle e-books from popular authors such as Stephen King and J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series (Shaffi, 2014). They also offer a wide range of audiobooks (Mintel, 2014). However, there seems to be a reluctance from major publishers to partner with Kindle Unlimited (Shaffi, 2014).
Platforms Oyster books and Scribd also apply the same concept, offering unlimited access to their titles in exchange for a subscription fee. Kindle Unlimited has the advantage of offering both audiobooks and e-books, a bigger book library, and is a bigger brand than competitors (Mintel, 2014). However, readers may base their choice on quality over quantity, for example, Oyster is supported by big brand publishers such as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins (Bertoni, 2014). This shows that other traditional publishers would more likely want to partner with them, if so, it will most likely grow its brand and expand its market. As for Scribd, they face the challenge of redeeming their reputation for offering copyright infringement to their users (Jones, 2009), but they are still also supported by big brand publishers like Simon & Schuster (Campbell, 2014). Additionally, McVeigh (2013) argues that a successful subscription model ‘won’t try to rival Amazon for range of titles’ it should instead focus on getting a large catalogue of content that is cheap to license and ‘won’t undermine existing sales channels’(ibid).
Word of mouth recommendations sell (Bhaskar, 2013), and digital subscriptions offers this and a new way for publishers and authors to get their books discovered now that many physical shops are getting shut down. In fact, Simon & Schuster’s strategy behind their partnership with both Oyster and Scribd was to encourage the availability for their books (Campbell, 2014).
The consumers’ relationship to their content is changing, and as is their value to it, Hall (2013, pp. 147) argues that ‘where products are expensive, and out of range of some customers, they may well resort to piracy, since it is so much easier, in order to gain some sort of access to content they cannot otherwise afford’. Offering a subscription service to users might help decrease the pirating that is taking place. The model is quite fair; users pay a reasonable fee to access unlimited content and at the same time, support the creator of the content.
Word Count: 550
Bibliography:
Bertoni, S., 2014, 'Oyster Books Scores Stephen King, Hemingway And More In Simon & Schuster Deal', Forbes.Com, p. 17, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 22 October 2014.
Bhaskar, M., A Theory of Publishing [Seminar to BA Publishing Media Year 2] Oxford Brookes University. 21 Oct 2014.
Campbell, L., (2014) Global subscription deal for S&S, The bookseller, [online] Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/global-subscription-deal-ss ] [Accessed: 1 Now 2014]
Eyre, C., (2014) Oyster launches children’s vertical, signs Disney Deal, The Bookseller, [online] Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/oyster-launches-children-s-vertical-signs-disney-deal [Accessed 1 Nov 2014]
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Hall, F. (2013). The Business of Digital Publishing. New York: Routledge, p.147.
Jones, P., (2009) Authors fight Scribd piracy, The Bookseller [online] Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/authors-fight-scribd-piracy [Accessed: 1 Nov 2014]
Jones, P., (2009) Subscribe here now, The Bookseller [online] Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/subscribe-here-now [Accessed: 1 Nov 2014]
McVeigh, C ., (2013) You know what’s cool? A billion dollars, that’s what’s cool, The Bookseller, [online] Available at: http://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/you-know-whats-cool-billion-dollars-thats-whats-cool [Accessed: 1 Nov 2014)
Mintel, 2014., Subscription services changing the way digital media is consumed - 28th August 2014. Available at: http://academic.mintel.com.oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/display/714069/ [Accessed: 1 Nov 2014]
OverDrive, (2014). Search and borrow from OverDrive's huge catalogue of eBooks, audiobooks and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.overdrive.com/ [Accessed 1 Nov 2014].
Oysterbooks.com, (2014). Browse Oyster’s ever-expanding collection of books [online] Available at: https://www.oysterbooks.com/library [Accessed 28 Oct 2014].