The e-book subscription market hasn’t had the best year: Oyster closed and Scribd scaled back its romance library. But Playster hopes to make the e-book subscription business work by offering e-books as part of a cross media content platform.
The site includes unlimited access to books, audio books, video games, music, movies and TV shows. Subscribers can pay $24.95 to access all of this media or choose an ala carte option and pay per service (books cost $9.95 a month). As part of the launch Playster is offering a free tablet and headphones to anyone that subscribes for one year to the unlimited entertainment platform.
Playster’s top publisher partners include: Findaway, Harlequin, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster among others. Book titles available on the platform include: American Sniper by Chris Kyle; God: A Story of Revelation by Deepak Chopra; and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Audio books on the platform include: George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.