…we took a look at twelve New York Times best sellers, and totaled up the prices, assuming mostly hardcover with some paperbacks — this came to $168.15 if we bought them on Amazon. The Kindle [editions] cost would have been $109.11. In other words, if you read one book per month, and you subtract the cost of the Kindle, your net savings per year is approximately $59.04.
And that’s not accounting for the $360 piece of hardware. What’s the sweet spot for a Kindle? An iPod Touch goes for $230, they at least have to beat that.
Related: the record industry loves the idea of subscription music, all you can eat for a low monthly fee. These plans seem kind of crazy to me on the surface — plans usually cost $15/month, but a single album costs $18… seems like a real money loser. But I can’t remember the last time I even bought an album; if most folks buying habits are like mine, then a $15 monthly “music tax” on every listener would be pretty sweet.
So: has Amazon considered this? From a reader’s perspective, it’d be just like a library card. The book publishers would actually get a chunk of that monthly payment, as opposed to their take from the hard copy sold to a library which doesn’t amount to jack or shit. Would even be a swell deal for Amazon. hm.
