There was once a building in a town or city that people could walk into and borrow a book, for free. Well, those times appear to be fading fast, and may soon just be a fact in a history book. Amazon is reportedly planning to launch a Netflix-like service for a selection of Kindle books, which may soon lead to the fall of the everyday library.
This service is rumored to be an added bonus to Amazon Prime customers. Every month Prime members would be able to read a limited number of older books as part of their annual $79 Prime membership fee.
The Amazon library service is still in the planning stages, but it appears that some publishers are not very happy with the idea. It’s unclear if the plan would allow consumers to download the books or just save them to a device for a limited time. Publishers are in fear though, that this service may devalue books.
The bookstore and publishing industries are already struggling, and with Amazon starting a trend, more companies are likely to follow. The bookstore, Borders, recently closed and the only real power in the bookstore industry appears to be Barnes and Noble. Amazon’s e-book library service may not only hurt bookstores, libraries, and publishers, but manufacturing and shipping companies would also lose business.
The growth of technology services is exciting and convenient in the eyes of consumers, but behind the scenes it is causing a large number of businesses to struggle. Maybe public libraries won’t fade, but instead rent out e-book readers. It is likely though, that this would not be a free service. Times are changing, and along with these changes the idea of a free and friendly service seems to be fading.