New In 2015

I think that December 2014 is completely the time for free trials, or at least, "close to free" trials.

So I jumped in feet first and signed up for the following:

Oyster

What is it? a digital book subscription service.
Regular Price: 9.99/month.
promo: 1 month free
current impression: 
Books: this is great so far, but mostly I think because I'm flexible in what I'll read. There aren't a ton of newer books, but there are plenty that I'm interested in (including the pretty little liars series and love with a chance of drowning, which i've heard great things about, but my library never carried the e-book of, which is how i get most of my books now). It's also nice, because you can read and check out an unlimited number of books.

Reading: Books can only be read on a computer, or using the iPhone, Android, iPad, Tablet, Kindle Fire Apps. This can be kind of frustrating, as reading on screens isn't really ideal for me, but so far it hasn't bothered me. There's also a nifty "night" mode with black background and white text which really is easier to read in the dark.

Cool feature: Oyster will tell you approximately how long the book will take you to read, and approximately how long it will take you to finish a chapter. This is something totally frustrating on my kindle because I'll say "oh I'll just finish the chapter" and then the chapter ends up being an eternity long, and I have no idea. (apparently this is a feature on new-er kindles, but my old kindle keyboard doesnt have this feature)

Spotify

What is it? on-demand music player. Streams music. Paying gets you similar features to the free version, minus ads.
Regular Price: 9.99/month
Promo: 3 months for .99
current impression: i like spotify premium, and i think this three months for .99 is awesome. But I'm not sure if it will be worth full price for me, because i don't have unlimited data, so I don't listen to spotify in the car or anything.

Audible

What is it? Audiobook subscription service.
Regular Price: 14.95/month
promo: 3 months for $3
current impression: I like audible. It downloads the book to your phone, so that you dont have to stream it. I always try and get books read by the authors themselves, so I downloaded B.J. Novak's "One More Thing." I have quite a bit of traveling by car in the next few months, so this is great for that.  Seems like a very broad range of books too, which is great.



NOTE: this post contains some referral links, because, why not?