Starting early next year, Kindle-owning Amazon Prime members might notice something missing from their subscription, as the platform will no longer offer the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library service. Although it is never great when a company removes a useful membership benefit, in this case, Amazon isn’t leaving voracious readers without something in its place.

Launched in 2011, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a service that allows Amazon Prime members to read one book from the extensive Amazon library for free each month. While not all books on Amazon are available for KOLL, there are thousands of titles available to borrow digitally. For example, the library doesn't often include bestsellers from major publishers, but does provide titles ranging from self-published books to the entire Harry Potter series. Readers can keep the book for however long it takes them to finish and then simply move onto the next.

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However, Amazon recently (and quietly) announced that the service will no longer be available, beginning January 4, 2021. For those who haven’t finished their borrowed books by then, Amazon will allow readers to hold onto them until they’re finished. Of course, unless Kindle owners are avid KOLL users, they may not notice the disappearance at all. Amazon has been phasing out the program over the last few months through the removal of the navigation option on Amazon's site, its listing as a Prime Membership benefit, and books available for borrowing not labeled as part of the KOLL program.

A New Era for Booklovers: Prime Reading

Amazon offers Prime Reading to Prime members.

While the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library’s closure will be disappointing to Prime members who use the service, Amazon already has something it says will be even better in place: Prime Reading. Like KOLL, this benefit is included with a Prime membership. However, different to KOLL, it allow users to borrow up to ten titles at a time. As there is no monthly cap to the service (like there was with KOLL), users simply need to return a book in order to download another. Not to mention, readers don’t even need to own a Kindle device to use Amazon’s Prime Reading as the Kindle app provides access to the free library on iOS and Android devices.

This service is not without a major drawback, however. Unlike KOLL, Prime Reading has significantly fewer titles available at just over 1000. If users want to expand their libraries, Amazon recommends adding Kindle Unlimited to their Amazon services. While this will expand the available choices to more than one million, it also means a $9.99 monthly fee. Users can also add Audible to their Amazon services for a monthly fee, if they want a truly huge selection of books and audiobooks.

Prime Reading was launched back in 2016, so its eventual replacement of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has been coming. With KOLL now confirmed to be coming to an end, the only question remains is whether Amazon will continue to expand the Prime Reading library, or if members will be pressured into subscribing to additional paid services to fill the hole that the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library will leave in 2021.

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Source: Amazon