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Oyster's ebook subscription app now sells books

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Oyster has made its name as the "Netflix for ebooks," but now it's about to pick up a more traditional business model: ebook sales. Oyster is launching an ebook store today that'll live inside of its existing app. You won't have to subscribe to Oyster to buy books from it, but subscribers may still want to — Oyster will have a larger selection of books available to buy than to rent. That could be particularly important for its subscribers, as they still don't have access to books from Penguin Random House and Hachette.

Oyster says that it'll offer "virtually every book" from the Big 5 publishers and that books will be "competitively priced." This isn't quite revolutionary — there are plenty of places, both apps and websites, that let you buy ebooks — but it'll help to bolster Oyster's discovery features and fill out gaps in its subscription service, albeit at an added price. It's a way for Oyster to differentiate itself from Scribd, which also offers an ebook subscription service. Scribd doesn't sell ebooks, but it does offer audiobooks and comics with its subscription.

The store will go live today on Oyster's website and in all of its apps. You'll be able to make purchases directly within the apps, too.