Amazon is a company with one foot in the virtual realm and another in the physical. Sure, you can stream or buy digital content, but you can also buy the same content in physical form. This sometimes gets confusing (Wait, so Amazon Prime is a Hulu-like service as well as an expedited shipping program?), but the e-tailing giant has shown time and again how artfully it can use that dichotomy.
It started with a willingness to take a loss on e-readers and now tablets, as the company becomes your personal Amazon buying device, netting more money for the company on the back end. Then, earlier this year, the company unveiled AutoRip, a service that gives you digital versions of CDs or even vinyl albums purchased via Amazon.
Now, meet Kindle Matchbook. Similar to AutoRip, you can access digital copies of books you purchased new from Amazon. That’s right, past tense. The service goes all the way back to 1995, when Amazon was first launched. Any books tied to your Amazon ID can be purchased as a digital file at a steep discount. Unlike AutoRip, there is indeed a fee for most works. Starting at $2.99, prices drop by a dollar to $1.99 and $0.99, finally settling on free for some books. Matchbook will work with Kindle eReaders, tablets, and Kindle apps for other devices.
A lot easier to tote around, too.
This is a great service for those whose chief complaint about ebooks has been not wanting to repurchase existing volumes in another format. Also, this is a great selling point for someone (like me) who observes the Jewish Sabbath. I won’t have to set aside my weekday reading once a week. Instead, I can have a digital copy to carry with me all week and a hard copy for the Sabbath.
This brilliant service launches in October. Frankly, the only thing that could make this more appealing is if Amazon also applied the same retroactive element to AutoRip, letting users get their hands on CDs purchased in the past. Also, one can’t help but wonder: we have bundled audio and text, so what’s in store for the next movie you buy?
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