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Amazon Officially Announces 'Kindle Unlimited' E-book and Audiobook Subscription Service

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Following the premature posting of information about the program, Amazon today officially announced Kindle Unlimited, a new e-book and audiobook subscription service that provides unlimited access to 600,000 Kindle titles and thousands of Audible audiobooks for $9.99 per month. Subscribers can access the content on any Kindle device or via the Kindle app on the iPad, iPhone or Mac.

kindle-unlimited.png
The Kindle Unlimited service includes high-profile Kindle titles such as The Hobbit and the Harry Potter series as well as popular audiobooks like The Hunger Games trilogy and Life of Pi. The service includes popular Kindle features including Highlights, X-Ray and Whispersync for Voice, which allows users to switch between listening and reading a book without losing their place.

Amazon is offering Kindle Unlimited with a 30-day free trial that also includes a free three-month membership to the full Audible service with access to more than 150,000 audiobooks. After this trial period is over, subscribers must pay $9.99 per month for the Kindle Unlimited service and can opt to continue the additional Audible membership for $14.95 per month.

Article Link: Amazon Officially Announces 'Kindle Unlimited' E-book and Audiobook Subscription Service
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/07/18/amazon-kindle-unlimited-2/
Yvan256

Yvan256

macrumors 603
Jul 5, 2004
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With Netflix asking only 8 dollars per month for unlimited movies and TV shows, 10 dollars per month for books seems pretty high in my opinion.
 
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Truthfulie

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Dec 18, 2013
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Kind of confused, Audible and Kindle Unlimited is still a separate service? Or Does 14.95 includes Audible AND Amazon Kindle ebooks?
 
adamryan1983

adamryan1983

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Feb 28, 2011
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Yvan256 said:
With Netflix asking only 8 dollars per month for unlimited movies and TV shows, 10 dollars per month for books seems pretty high in my opinion.
Click to expand...

What makes books less valuable than movies? Being a reader, I think 9.99 is well justified for unlimited reading for a month.
 
woodekm

woodekm

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2008
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I dont even know how to read. Maybe the audio books will be for me then.
 
J

jdblas69

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
270
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Truthfulie said:
Kind of confused, Audible and Kindle Unlimited is still a separate service? Or Does 14.95 includes Audible AND Amazon Kindle ebooks?
Click to expand...

I think for the 30 day trial you get full access for both ebooks and audible.

After 30 days you have to decide if you want to pay just 9.99 for the ebooks or pay the $14.95 for both services.
 
T

Truthfulie

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Dec 18, 2013
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0
jdblas69 said:
I think for the 30 day trial you get full access for both ebooks and audible.

After 30 days you have to decide if you want to pay just 9.99 for the ebooks or pay the $14.95 for both services.
Click to expand...
That's what I thought at first, but this page shows two free trials. One for one month Unlimited subscription and three months Audible subscription, thus my confusion.
 
H

horsebattery

macrumors 6502
Sep 24, 2013
313
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jdblas69 said:
I think for the 30 day trial you get full access for both ebooks and audible.

After 30 days you have to decide if you want to pay just 9.99 for the ebooks or pay the $14.95 for both services.
Click to expand...

That seems unlikely. Audible by itself is $14.95.

Edit for clarification:
From what I understand, signing up for Kindle Unlimited gets you 3 free months of Audible. That is however, limited to 3 free credits, at 1 per month, each of which can be used towards 1 Audible book.

AFTER the 3 free months, you still can get free audiobooks. However, that is limited to Kindle books that are already bundled with free narrations. So no, you do not get free Audible access after the free 3 month trial period.
 
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DolsJ

macrumors member
Aug 27, 2008
56
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Textbooks?

I wonder does this include the e-textbooks? 9.99 a month is a fraction of the cost of even renting most college texts.
 
Yvan256

Yvan256

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adamryan1983 said:
What makes books less valuable than movies? Being a reader, I think 9.99 is well justified for unlimited reading for a month.
Click to expand...

Less valuable as in production cost, not entertainment value. I've never heard of a book that cost over a million dollars to write.
 
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Jsameds

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Apr 22, 2008
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adamryan1983 said:
What makes books less valuable than movies? Being a reader, I think 9.99 is well justified for unlimited reading for a month.
Click to expand...

Well they use a lot less data for a start, which isn't cheap. I can churn through 5-10GB of Netflix in an evening without even thinking, but the average person would struggle to download that amount of data in audiobooks in a whole month.
 
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horsebattery

macrumors 6502
Sep 24, 2013
313
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DolsJ said:
I wonder does this include the e-textbooks? 9.99 a month is a fraction of the cost of even renting most college texts.
Click to expand...

I tried to look for any of the Computer Science textbooks I recalled using, but so far nothing. Maybe I'm skeptical from Amazon's Prime membership increasing, but I find it unlikely for KU to include textbooks. They'd probably make a killing off of their rental service instead.
 
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neuropsychguy

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Sep 29, 2008
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Truthfulie said:
That's what I thought at first, but this page shows two free trials. One for one month Unlimited subscription and three months Audible subscription, thus my confusion.
Click to expand...

You are correct - 1 month Kindle Unlimited and 3 months Audible trials. Kindle Unlimited is $10 / month and Audible at least $15 / month. Kindle Unlimited includes ebooks and a selection of "thousands" of audiobooks (so a very limited selection of what's available through Audible). Maintaining an Audible membership gives you access to 150,000 audiobooks (that you get to keep - you get one credit that's good for an audiobook each month). Kindle Unlimited is just a rental service so you'd lose access to the audiobooks through it once you stop paying (which isn't the case with Audible).
 
awer25

awer25

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2011
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adamryan1983 said:
What makes books less valuable than movies? Being a reader, I think 9.99 is well justified for unlimited reading for a month.
Click to expand...

The average TV show is 20-45 minutes, the average movie is 2 hours, and an average book can easily be 24 hours of reading. Over the course of a month, you would generally get more "products" from movie subscriptions than you would from book subscriptions.

Also, buying a month of movies/TV shows (from, say, iTunes) would likely cost more than the $8 that Netflix charges. Buying a month's worth of books might not be much higher than $10.
 
BladesOfSteel

BladesOfSteel

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Jul 13, 2009
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St. Paul
Let's see... No Brad Thor... No Vince Flynn... No Lee Child... No Gillian Flynn...No Michael Crichton... No Tom Clancy... and for the sake of my wife, no Jodi Picoult.

Sure I have a pretty limited scope of authors I enjoy (and unfortunately, some have passed on) but seriously, these are some pretty big omissions. Hopefully Amazon can secure deals with all the big publishers. This kinda feels like the same service my local library offers for eReaders. They say they offer a TON of books, but most of them are from lesser known authors, which is great for some, but not for someone like me who has a limited range.
 
J

jdblas69

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
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neuropsychguy said:
You are correct - 1 month Kindle Unlimited and 3 months Audible trials. Kindle Unlimited is $10 / month and Audible at least $15 / month. Kindle Unlimited includes ebooks and a selection of "thousands" of audiobooks (so a very limited selection of what's available through Audible). Maintaining an Audible membership gives you access to 150,000 audiobooks (that you get to keep - you get one credit that's good for an audiobook each month). Kindle Unlimited is just a rental service so you'd lose access to the audiobooks through it once you stop paying (which isn't the case with Audible).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification. Makes sense.
 
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