It started with Macmillan, or rather, it started with the iPad, but now it seems there’s no way any publisher is going to sit still for a $9.99 e-book price. On Friday, Amazon’s Hachette became the third major publisher, following Macmillan and HarperCollins, to push for the agency model, in which the publisher sets the ebook prices, and the bookseller takes a cut.
Amazon.com, smartly realizing the way to get e-book adoption going was to keep prices low, as well as realizing having a one-size-fits-all price of $9.99 made things much more understandable to consumers, is surely feeling beleaguered.
This definitely sounds familiar, as Apple took the same course with music: a constant 99 cents price for all songs, despite what music companies wanted. Ah, but as noted, Apple is on the side of the publishers in this case? What gives?
What gives is nicely reported here. It makes total sense, as well. It’s all meant to muck with Amazon.com.
It’s all about who wants to sell “what” to make money. Amazon.com wants to sell e-books. Apple wants to sell hardware. Publishers want to sell hardbacks. It feels like the transition from CDs to digital music again. The publishers don’t get it, Apple doesn’t care, and Amazon.com, who wants to sell e-books, is getting the shaft.
Oh, and we consumers, who might want to buy an e-book at $9.99 but won’t at $15 (why bother at $15 when you can buy a hardback that has no DRM and that I can hand to my friend to read) get shafted as well.
We’ll have to wait to see if this shakes out the way it seems. While the iPad is not just an e-book reader, it’s not really a computer, either. To me, it’s just a big iPhone, with the same limitations (no background processing, App Store restrictions, DRM, etc. etc. — and yes, I realize the Kindle has DRM, too).
