Why Ebook Subscription Services Will Finally Succeed In The Coming Decade

Subscription services for digital music, movies, and TV shows are all very popular nowadays, but for ebooks, they aren’t. Although ebook subscription services have existed for several years, they have yet to take off. That’s going to change in the coming decade: by the end of the 2020s, we’ll see subscription ebooks become as ubiquitous as Spotify and Netflix.

Ebook subscription services have lagged behind music and video subscription services from the beginning. Subscription music services first appeared in 2002 with Rhapsody (now Napster). Netflix launched its streaming service in 2007 to its already huge base of DVD rental customers. Though ebooks first appeared in the 1990s, subscription ebook services didn’t start in the U.S. until 2013, when Oyster launched and the document-sharing site Scribd started a subscription ebook service. Amazon launched its Kindle Unlimited subscription service the following year.