Hoopla Adds eBooks, Digital Comics to Its Pay-per-Loan Library Service
Hoopla’s long-promised library ebook service unexpectedly launched today.
Few details will be available until next week, but I can report today that users have been informed that their respective libraries can now loan ebooks via Hoopla. I caught the news via MobileRead, and I can confirm that the Hoopla website is now listing ebooks.
However, Hoopla’s apps for Android and iOS have not been updated, and Hoopla has not officially announced the launch nor shared any details. When asked, Hoopla’s PR rep said that she was "not able to share any further details on this until May 19th".
As a result I don’t really have much to report at this time, but I can tell you that Hoopla’s new service is only showing 5509 ebooks from smaller publishers (Tyndale House, Melodrama Publishing, Chicago Press Review) as well as titles from Rosetta Books (they distribute a lot of backlist titles from before the ebook era).
Hoopla’s catalog is notably lacking in ebooks from the major publishers. I can’t even see any ebook titles from Macmillan, which is a little odd. Hoopla announced a deal to distribute Macmillan audiobooks only last week, and I would think that deal would cover both formats.
And while we’re on the topic, Hoopla is also listing 579 comics from IDW, Book Studios, Valiant, and other small presses, but I don’t see any titles from Marvel or DC.
Based on what Hoopla was reporting last week, both the ebooks and digital comics are new. I can see from last week’s post that as of last week Hoopla offered over 300,000 video, music, and audiobook titles and claimed 680 libraries as partners.
Those 680 libraries more or less rent the content from Hoopla under a pay-per-loan model. And to be clear, the several library websites I checked describe this as a loan, and not a sale.
Hoopla has been offering this service for going on two years now, and it has yet to sign 1,000 partners. Do you suppose this is a sign that the service is unwanted or unattractive to libraries?
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