oyster (book streaming service)

I only know what's in this very brief article-cum-press release.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/09/07/oyster_book_app_launches....

Anyone have insights into whether this service, or something similar, is likely to play an influential role in e-books, or any books?

I think it will become the 21st Century - fastest and cheaper way of reading books on the move.

OUT: Kindle IN: Oyster

I very much doubt they'll gain traction.

I asked them for data, so we can list books by Oyster-existence.

We have both kinds of music here, country AND western!

There are setbacks in Oyster, no new books.

http://www.gigaom.com/oyster

Interesting: suggests there is a potential to sell LT's recommendations to Oyster, and not merely have on file which titles are offered in Oyster.

Not saying LT should or would want to, just an observation given the comment about Oyster's very limited recommendation algorithm.

Also don't know if it makes sense to import (Oyster) or export (LT) recommendations in a database format, as opposed to building a native algorithm working on the Oyster database itself. Now that I write that out, I suspect you would want the algorithm rather than a constantly refreshed file of recommendations to link to each title in a database.

#5 by razzamajazz> By "no new books" what you really mean is "no books until they've been out for a while", right? At first I read it as "they're not adding any books that were published after 20__." As long as that date keeps moving, I think it's less of a problem. I tend to read mostly stuff that's at least 5 years old anyway.

But the reason why it won't for me personally is just that I don't usually read books on backlit screens. Just not a good reading experience to me. I've done it occasionally for free Project Gutenberg books, just so I'll have something to read in those very unlikely situations where I haven't brought a paper book.

I'd be FAR more interested if it tied into a kindle paperwhite or the equivalent nook. But we all know reasons why there's roadblocks there.

I can save $9.95 a month and go to the library. I already pay for the library via taxes (and happily, too. I love my library system), and they have digital books. And DVDs. And CDs. And graphic novels. And, if I ask the right way, and nicely, they'll add a book to the system if they can. Also, plenty of cheap ebooks to be found. So, I guess the question is, what's the point?

Good preference by going to the public libraries.

Interesting idea, but at that price I imagine it's got a limited market - it's only going to appeal to fairly regular readers for who the cost/benefit makes sense.