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Scribd To Change Its 'Unlimited' E-book Subscription Plan To Semi-Unlimited

Posted by timothy on from the demi-perfect-and-quasi-eterrnal dept.

Robotech_Master writes: Subscription service Scribd has announced that it will change its unlimited e-book and audiobook-reading plan to a hybrid limited/unlimited model starting next month. It will offer a rotating selection of thousands of titles for unlimited reading, plus up to 3 books and 1 audiobook per month from the entire Scribd catalog. The particularly interesting thing to come out of this is that only 3% of Scribd's subscribers actually read more than 3 books per month--so the effect for the other 97% will actually be to give them access to a wider selection of titles.

55 comments

  1. Scribd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can go purify themselves in Lake Minnetonka.

    Get off the Internet, or at least out of my Google results.

    1. Re: Scribd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A few years ago there was a period when Scribd would flood Google search results. I don't know why that happened but I rarely see Scribd results now.

  2. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    scribd is cancer. Good riddens

    1. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      riddance

      Spell check is your friend. It's not even a long word and you're the third person I've seen misspell it in the last week.

    2. Re:Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      riddance

      Spell check is your friend. It's not even a long word and you're the third person I've seen misspell it in the last week.

      I'm on your side, but I think we're losing the battle. Just a few comments down someone used "N'mind" instead of "Nevermind". There's literary incompetence, and then there's willful literary incompetence.

  3. Then I will change too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll go from no pirating to pirating everything they have.

    1. Re:Then I will change too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      N'mind that they don't own much of what they'd have you pay them for either.

      Plenty is "user supplied", usually worthless crap to fill a quotum so you can fetch something for free, but often enough that stuff is copyrighted and those rights aren't scribd's, yet they charge anyway.

  4. "Semi" is a word with negative connotations. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can't help but laugh when I see the word "semi" in a name or a description. It immediately makes me, and many others, think of the term "semi-erect", as in a penis that's not fully erect, but also not fully flaccid. "Semi" is a word that should be used with caution.

    1. Re:"Semi" is a word with negative connotations. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      WTH

      Well most people hear the word semi and think tractor trailers. Maybe you think about cock too much?

    2. Re:"Semi" is a word with negative connotations. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends where you live, brah. Round here, it tends to mean semi-detached house. But yeah, seems GP has cock on the brain.

  5. Thank you! by DogDude · · Score: 0

    All y'all suckers should continue to thank your God, Amazon, for continuing to allow you to read their books.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
  6. I support my local library. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck scribd.

  7. Semi-unlimited? by ITRambo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is no such thing. Unlimited means no limit. Anything less is limited. Period. Such marketing BS.

    1. Re:Semi-unlimited? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, that's BS.
      If I used their service, you bet I'd be doing more audiobooks.
      I have 35 hours of commuting per month.
      How does that work out to 1 audiobook?

    2. Re:Semi-unlimited? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Things like this are why I don't subscribe to Scribd or its ilk.

      They neglect to mention that while only 3% of the users were downloading lots of media, everyone else was also paying for "unlimited" service they didn't really use.

      Scribd's stance seems to be: "It's just too expensive to offer the service we actually promised. So everyone is now going to pay for our screwup."

    3. Re:Semi-unlimited? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have to get something so boring it feels like that long.

    4. Re:Semi-unlimited? by jabuzz · · Score: 1

      If you go unabridged that could be less than one audio book. For example Lord of the Rings is just under 51 hours and War and Peace is around 61 hours. Bleak House is 35-37 hours depending on narrator. Most of the Game of Thrones books are over 35 hours, so it's not just classics.

      Though I would concede that the average audio book is in the region of 15 hours.

    5. Re:Semi-unlimited? by LatePaul · · Score: 1

      "Semi-unlimited" (with quotes) was a phrase used by the article not Scribd. So it may be BS but it's not (Scribd) marketing BS.

    6. Re:Semi-unlimited? by MrNiceguy_KS · · Score: 1

      My father-in-law is a truck driver. About a year ago, he discovered audiobooks on CD and in the months following, tore through the collections of most local libraries. My wife and I decided to get him a subscription to an audiobook service for Christmas. Most of them are like book or record clubs - your membership buys you 1 or 2 a month. We went with Scribd because their audiobook rental was more like what we were looking for - basically a Netflix for audiobooks, an all-you-can-eat membership.

      Now their audiobooks are limited to a "rotating collection" for rental, instead of the full catalog. I guess if they want to keep him as a customer, they better make sure that collection has stuff he's actually interested in.

      --
      Redundancy is good And also good.
  8. Lol by cfalcon · · Score: 2

    > hybrid limited/unlimited

    The word for that is "limited". If I can find a limit, it's "limited". It's not "hybrid limited/unlimited". That's silly.

    1. Re: Lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Clearly you aren't in marketing.

  9. Words by sexconker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The word they're looking for is "limited".

    1. Re: Words by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Scam" would also work.

    2. Re:Words by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Their "unlimited" books have always been limited in selection. Now they're shrinking the selection, but adding 3 books from an even wider selection.

      Presumably, the plan is to get their customers hooked on their wider limited selection, so that that one month they read more than 3 books, they'll have to spend extra. Since only 3% of their customers will be affected in any one month, they're not expecting much backlash (presumably a different 3% each month, since they're careful to focus on the percent affected monthly rather than the total).

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  10. ick by fluffernutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't really get Scribd's business model. The only time I end up there is through Google results, and they try to make me pay for something that the next Google result has for free. Scribd and Experts Exchange could possibly be the two most annoying sites on the internet for that.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    1. Re:ick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Expert Sexchange is still a thing?

    2. Re:ick by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "Scribd and Experts Exchange could possibly be the two most annoying sites on the internet for that."

      But at least Experts Exchange has a funnier domain name.
      [Deleting Scribd app]

    3. Re:ick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, all the info is there...

  11. Less is more? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    War is peace

  12. Marketing BS by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

    There must be 1000s of books that I don't ever want to read. Clearly the marketing guys don't factor-in that quality of choice is as important as quantity. Looks like scribd is about to market itself into oblivion.

    --
    Nullius in verba
    1. Re:Marketing BS by arth1 · · Score: 1

      There must be 1000s of books that I don't ever want to read.

      Indeed, and those books will make up the brunt of the 1000 "unlimited' books. (The rest will be the first book in interminable series.)
      To read books that are actually readable, you have to use your quota of 3 books, and soon enough, pay extra.

      Or at least, that's what Scribd marketing thinks. They don't appear to take into account that this will alienate readers, who will jump ship in a second. Internet users are fickle, and won't stay if you try to milk them.
      (Something the new owners here seem to get.)

  13. Mockingbird by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As done by the dumb and dumber outfit, rings true here.

  14. Rotating selection? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    The idea of rotating selection is stupid. Just make all the titles you have available actually available all the time. It isn't as if they are running out of disk space. You want a wider selection of titles? Just make them all available, don't rotate them.

    1. Re:Rotating selection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How else could they double-dip and charge publishers to get their books a better listing? More views probably translates into more income and awards per book, so there's some cost-benefit formula they can use to change publishers just enough that it's not worth it to not pay.

      Rotating also brings extra attention to the site. People will visit more often if the selection changes simple to see what's new.

    2. Re:Rotating selection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was completely wrong, please mod my parent post down. The book companies are draining the subscription services dry. Another example of the media industry's distorted view of themselves and the world:

      it has made a number of changes over the last year or so—paring down the number of romance and erotica titles available in its catalog by as much as 80 to 90%, and also cutting back the number of audiobooks available. It seemed that readers were simply consuming too darned many of them. And, indeed, there seems to be a similar rationale for this new change. Adler even comes right out and says, “These changes will only affect the experience of a small group of subscribers – 3% in any given month – who were reading many times their monthly membership fee.”

      Mike Shatzkin writes that Oyster’s business model for books from major publishers had them “paying full price for each use of a book with a threshold trigger at considerably less than a complete read while, at the same time, offering consumers a monthly subscription price that barely covered the sale of one book, let alone two,” while they hoped they could build up big enough audiences that they would have enough heft to renegotiate better terms.

    3. Re:Rotating selection? by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 1

      They are all available all the time. This change simply limits you to 3 per month. So unless you read more than 3 books per month, this change doesn't affect you at all.

    4. Re:Rotating selection? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      "It will offer a rotating selection of thousands of titles for unlimited reading,"

      Rotation selection.

    5. Re:Rotating selection? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "The idea of rotating selection is stupid. Just make all the titles you have available actually available all the time."

      Rotating selection is what makes Netflix Streaming so miserable. You constantly have to watch for those pitiful little lists of Netflix movies that 'expire' soon. I stay with Netflix DVD so I can get mostly every movie ever made.

    6. Re:Rotating selection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You obviously can't read.

      "plus up to 3 books and 1 audiobook per month from the entire Scribd catalog."

      So if you read more than 3 books a month, the 4th, 5th, etc will need to be from the "rotating selection" or you'll have to pay extra for them. The first 3, though, you can pick from the entire catalog.

      So they've addressed your complaint. They entire catalog *is* available - but only for the first 3 you read in a month.

  15. not to fear... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't know what scribd is, but I read somewhere that it was soon going to be incorporated into systemd.

  16. Altered the deal... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I will now use semi-unlimited piracy to get the books i want.

  17. Awesome by Freedom+Bug · · Score: 1

    This change makes me feel a lot better about my Scribd subscription, it gives me confidence that the service is sustainable. It's still a good deal, I'm definitely part of the 97% that read fewer than 3 books per month. Buying 2-3 books a month would definitely cost me a lot more than $90/year.

    I felt the same way after my ISP switched from unlimited to 400GB per month. I'm no longer paying for those leechers that use several TB per month.

    1. Re:Awesome by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "I felt the same way after my ISP switched from unlimited to 400GB per month."

      Imagine how thrilled you'll be when they cut the cap to 150GB per month?

    2. Re:Awesome by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      I felt the same way after my ISP switched from unlimited to 400GB per month. I'm no longer paying for those leechers that use several TB per month.

      How big a discount did they give you for the switch?

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    3. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's the same price but they jacked up modem rental fees to $15 from $5 per month.

      +++

      isp around here used to charge $5 per month for a co-branded norton internet security to subscribers. they changed to include norton for "free" sounds like a deal right? until you notice the $10-15 per month increase on the base dsl rate itself....

  18. For everything else, there's TPB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My daily reminder of why I pirate media.

  19. Lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First they got everyone used to unlimited audiobooks and then screwed them over by paring it down to one credit per month. Now we are getting screwed on the books too! I don't want a "rotating selection" either. We want all books and audiobooks at our disposal, unlimited! Afterall, we pay the monthly fee, dammit.

  20. Ridiculous!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is ridiculous because most of the subscribers did subscribe because unlimited access to E-books; hence, if your policy changes regarding unlimited access, what is the point of keeping advertising your site as a site that can give its subscribers unlimited access to E-books?????????

  21. oh look.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yet another dotcom based on pretending that it doesn't benefit from pirated content. i see nottthink.. notthink!

  22. piss on scribd by SkunkPussy · · Score: 2

    They take public domain documents then put them behind a wall where you can't download or print them unless you sign up or subscribe.

    Its complete bullshit.

    --
    SURELY NOT!!!!!
  23. DRM'ing open documents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If copying DRM'ed documents is illegal, shouldn't DRM'ing open documents also be illegal ?

  24. Re:Donand Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To keep gay vampires away?

  25. Ugh by DriveDog · · Score: 1

    Sounds like the effect's going to be like moving from the old Netflix with hoardes of obscure DVDs to the "popular" online movies available. 3 books, but only 1 audio from the full catalog per month? Boo. Who wants to listen to the same junk as everyone else? Bad news, at least it sounds like it.

  26. The cemetery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Scridb, the cemetery where PDFs go and die.
    On a side note, leech whatever you can and distribute it elsewhere, they are becoming the next distributor cartel.

    captcha: consumes
    Quite fitting.