First Impressions on Oyster, the Netflix of Books

Netflix pioneered the business of subscription consumption of media. While magazine and newspaper subscriptions have existed forever, Netflix was the first to take the concept of media consumption and marry it to the subscription model meaningfully in the broadband era. With the remarkable success of the Netflix model came the followers. Spotify offered a subscription music service which I have come to love and enjoy very much. As have over 2 million paid customers across the world, not to count the millions more on the free Spotify plan. There are many other video and music subscription services now that are making a name for themselves in their space.One category of media that has thus far been elusive is book subscription services. Books, unlike the rest of media which warrant repeated or continued consumption, is usually a one time event. With few exceptions, the value of a typical book dramatically ages once the reader starts reading. With every passing page, the book's value rapidly depreciates. So a subscription service for books, while extremely useful for readers would challenge the entire book industry. And that has been the case until now. Enter Oyster.Oyster is a new book subscription service that makes it simple to read books like you would in a library. You pay a monthly subscription fee of $9.95 and instantly get access to over 100,000 books. So is this the Holy Grail of book subscription services?. Is this the Netflix of books?. I have been using the Oyster service for the past few weeks and here is my review.[gallery ids="1385,1376,1377,1378,1379,1380,1381,1382,1383"]The ServiceOyster offers a subscription book service for $9.95/month. You get to read as many books as you want, build reading lists and follow celebrities, collections and other Oyster users. The service is US only and requires a US-based credit card. Oyster is offering a one month trial to get you hooked onto the service. Oyster can be managed via PC- you can add books to your reading list, and do pretty much everything but actually read the book. Oyster is only available on iOS- specifically devices running iOS7. When they started out, they were available only on iPhones which was a pain to read on. But now, they are also available on iPads running iOS7.DesignOyster has done well to piggyback themselves onto iOS7. iOS7 has had its share of admirers and detractors but what is undeniable is its move to a simpler, cleaner interface. And for a book reading experience, simpler is always better. From that standpoint, Oyster's interface looks beautiful. I like their simple and minimalist UI for book discovery and reading. I have a gripe or two on the number of clicks it takes to get to a good book and start reading or find a book from one's own saved reading list. But otherwise, it is a beautiful interface to interact with books and lists.Book SelectionFor now, some major publishers have signed on. HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Workman and Smashwords are contributing some of their books to the selection. I spent a good couple of hours perusing the content. It is a good start. I found a couple of dozen good books I have been meaning to read. But it is definitely not anywhere near comprehensive. There are a lot of books missing and Oyster has its work cut out in terms of expanding its footprint. I have more on this in a later section. There are curated lists which are updated based on things in vogue. Termed Spotlight, some of the items under that category right now are Thoughts on Food (September), Political Satire (2013), Literary Debuts (2013), etc.The general book selection is broken down to broad categories like Biography, Business, Children and so on. In addition, there is a "Featured on Oyster" category that features some specific books based on ones being read or collections recently added to the library.Reading ExperienceOyster is at its core, an interface to discover and read good books. In the few hours I have spent discovering books, adding them to my reading list and finally start reading them, I enjoyed the process. Like with Netflix, the book selection process took more time than the reading itself. Once done, the book reading process was pretty immersive. One thing I liked was the selection of fonts and cooler still, backgrounds that go with the font selection. This made the book reading experience personalized and neat.ChallengesFor Oyster, this is a great first step. They have built a solid service with a good library to start with. But where they go from here will determine how many people sign up and stay on for the long haul.Step 1: The library needs to constantly expand. A static library will chase away folks who stay on for a few months. Stickiness factor will be a big deal. Folks who sign up for the trial will need convincing to stay on.Step 2: I would argue that they need to expand to Android and Windows Phone, but they have started with the right platform in iOS. iOS offers a large paying audience with a predisposition to support such services.Step 3: International expansion. This could come later after the service signs up enough people in the US.Step 4: Sustain the initial momentum. At $9.95, for avid readers, this is a good price point. For $120 a year, if a reader can read 20 or so good books, that is a steal. But for that new books need to be added to the library. Bestsellers from past years will only go so far especially with hardcore readers who probably have many of those books anyways. So, is it worth $9.95?That is the big question. At $9.95, it is more expensive than a Netflix streaming account and about 4c less than Spotify Premium. In my opinion, if you are an avid reader who is not sold on purchasing books, this is a good service. If you are a heavy reader, this is a good bet. If you are a sparse reader, it is worth exploring to find out if this service is for you. A trial membership should give you an idea of how many books are available that spark your interest. If that list is small, you are better off borrowing them from the library or buying them on the Kindle Store. Else, this service is worth a shot.Personally, I like what I see but I am completely invested in the Kindle system that I may not find good value here. That said, this service is still worth a one month trial membership to see if it works for you. If nothing, this will be a harbinger of a solid book subscription service that achieves broad market adoption.