Amazon launched the Kindle Rewards Beta program in the US last October that allows customers to earn points when purchasing Kindle ebooks and print books, and then once you earn 300 points they can be converted to a $3 credit.
Amazon started sending out emails a couple days ago notifying customers about changes to the Kindle Rewards program that will go into effect starting today, June 1st.
First off, they’re lowering the amount of points you can earn from 5 points for Kindle ebooks and 2 points for print books for every dollar spent, to 3 points for Kindle books and 1 point for print books per dollar spent.
They’re also reducing the time you have to cash in points for credit from 6 months to 3 months. You’ll still get 6 months for points earned before June 1st, but all points earned after that time will only last for three months.
So now you basically have to spend $100 every 3 months on Kindle books in order to get a measly $3 credit, unless you buy your books on double point days, which are few and far between.
This is one of several instances where Amazon has made changes for the worse for Kindle users this year. Last month they raised the price of Kindle Unlimited from $9.99 to $11.99 per month. Earlier in the year Amazon announced plans to discontinue magazine and newspaper subscriptions on the Kindle platform, and in early January they made changes to the Kindle for PC/Mac apps to make it so people can’t download newer ebooks in the older Kindle format, making DRM removal nearly impossible for non-Kindle owners, and they also removed the ability to download Kindle Unlimited books for USB transfer.
Amazon has made a lot of changes to the Kindle platform this year, and none of them are good for customers. I thought the Kindle Rewards program was a good idea when it first started, but now it’s hardly worth paying attention to anymore.
Ohhh…. Amazon is making something worse? How surprising.
I’m still pretty salty about what they did to Prime Music.
I used to like Prime Music a long time ago, but their music app was so buggy I had to stop using it, and I couldn’t stand the endless nag screens to signup for their monthly plan, kind of like how I have to decline a Prime membership every single time I buy something from Amazon now that I don’t have Prime. It’s so annoying.
I used it ALL THE TIME… particularly b/c there were a few albums that I would listen to on repeat. But, since the update… I can’t do that. I have to shuffle it, and it adds songs that I don’t care to listen to.
It’s a shuffle version of their full catalog now…more like the free version of Spotify.
Maybe they’ll offer more “double earning” events so that people can at least earn 6 points per dollar? I guess I don’t really buy enough books to make this worthwhile as it is. Most of my books are from Kindle Unlimited. Although I’ll probably cancel that before my July renewal.
Hmmmm… maybe that’s why they updated the Kindle Rewards… because more people have canceled KU and are buying more books, thereby earning more points? Although I can’t see that I’d earn all that many points anyhow.
Try Scribd. I have mostly put Amazon on the back burner. Jeff Bezos is greedy. I must have listened to or read at least 30 books on Scribd in 2023 for 84 dollars a year. audible was more than 200 dollars for 24 credits and I did that for several years before discovering Scribd.
And Amazon isn’t ever going to charge more than $9.99 for an ebook either.
Authors and publishers set the prices, not Amazon.
That may be but I recall well over a decade ago that being one of their selling points to sell Kindles and ebooks. YMMV
That was was they said when I bought my original Kindle, Leo. Your recall is correct.
Amazon wanted to sell bestsellers and new releases for $9.99, but publishers and Apple conspired to bring that to an end. Remember the price fixing lawsuit? You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc
The ebook ought to kill the paperback, since it is just information and a book isnt even a big file for the most part. Z library will benefit the most. Like Jobs once said,” Beva pirate.” Jeff could initially benefit from lower costs until his virtual company had to charge tax on everything. The politicians have done such a great job that people are sleeping in tents or their cars.