Pricing models are changing quickly and sometimes on a daily basis for vendors to stay competitive in this hot market. Some vendors are willing to consider and offer a different pricing model to get your business. Here are a few that are out there currently.
Subscription: Many audio book vendors work on a subscription basis. You purchase access to a collection or part of the collection for a year for a certain price.
- Pros: Takes away the problems with collection development. Because your library has access to the entire master collection from the vendor, there usually is no need (or opportunity) to make local selection decisions. HINT: Some subscription models provide unlimited concurrent use of individual titles, while others do not.
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Ask the vendor how new content is selected for inclusion in the master collection. Ask how your library can participate (either directly or through a representative) in selecting content for the master collection and in developing general collection development goals for the master collection.- Cons: The collection does not belong to the library and cannot be accessed if the subscription is allowed to lapse.
Cost per Circulation: This seems to be a new way of pricing offered to consortia.
- Pros: This way, the library pays per use
- Cons: There is no control or limit. What if the service is very popular and the library cannot afford the price or the number of circulations? You have to ask, is this a good way to price a new service?
Cost Based on Circulation: Cost is based on your library's annual circulation.
- Pros: They are always available when people want them. Larger libraries are charged more than smaller libraries; pricing may be more in relation to library size and budget than other pricing
- Cons: Downloadable audio book circulation may or may not relate to your library’s overall circulation; it may or may not compare to other items circulated in your library. The pricing set up based on circulation seems to be too high for many libraries to consider this.
- Also if the library burns through its block of circulation events before the end of the contract period, most vendors will allow you to purchase additional circulations. This could create some budgeting challenges for the service, especially near the end of a fiscal year when funds are tight
Simultaneous Access Availability: This pricing model offers a quasi-unlimited concurrent usage model.
- Pros: Your library patrons can access any text in the collection at any time. Books are "always available."
- Cons: Only up to a maximum number of total annual circulations are specified in the agreement between the vendor and the library