The surprising economics of digital lending

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Long gone are the days of hauling sixty books home from the local library. With eBooks, the worlds of Fahrenheit 451 to Harry Potter are at your fingertips with just a tap. But what's the price behind the click?

Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:11.6	At the Wacom County Library System in Washington State, they have a print copy of Fair and
0:15.9	Height 451.
0:17.3	You know, this is the Ray Bradbury dystopian novel about a society where books are outlawed.
0:22.3	They're set on fire instead of red.
0:24.6	Now the library bought its print copy of this classic 12 years ago and it is still going
0:29.6	strong.
0:30.6	Carmi Parker is a librarian in Wacom County.
0:33.4	It has circulated about a hundred times which is really good.
0:38.4	It hasn't like disintegrated yet.
0:40.1	Maybe the people who are reading that particular book are careful about their books.
0:45.4	I'm not sure.
0:46.4	The Wacom County Library also has a digital version of Fair and Height 451.
0:51.6	But the library doesn't own that ebook.
0:54.2	Instead, it pays $60 to license that digital copy for two years.
0:58.8	So if we want to offer that for the next ten years, that's $300.
1:04.2	And I can buy the paper back for $17.
1:08.4	Same title, different formats, very different pricing.
1:13.0	This is the indicator from Planet Money I'm Whelan Wong.
1:15.5	And I'm Darian Woods.
1:16.7	The pricing of ebooks is a big source of tension between libraries and publishers that
1:22.3	has occasionally bubbled over into public disputes, boycotts, and even contentious court cases.
	...

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