One of the first digital subscription services, Scribd ended its program a few years ago due to profitability and technical issues. Today, VP of Content Acquisition Andrew Weinstein has announced they are ‘reintroducing an unlimited audiobook and ebook subscription system.”
Learning from past experience, the new subscription program allows subscribers to “read as many ebooks, magazine, newspapers, sheet music and audiobooks every month they remain a subscriber.”
Voracious readers, however, will be limited, and will no longer have access to Scribd’s entire catalog. A message will be sent to these users notifying them they have ‘surpassed their quota.’ It seems to be a quite similar business model to many Internet providers in that once you’ve reached a certain percentage of data, they slow you down.
Scribd says they need to place certain limitations in order to keep the subscription service profitable, and available to all readers. They have not stated what their reader book limit will be. The company’s biggest competitor is Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Scribd, unlike Amazon KU, will be available in all countries and will carry front-list titles from all the major publishers, and their digital content will be available for both Android and iOS systems.
