Reading material doesn’t have to be just books, as an Amazon Kindle unlimited service rival is opening a new chapter in Australia.

If you are someone who loves to read and enjoys doing it in the most modern way possible, you have a choice in how to do it. Between the e-readers made by Amazon in the Kindle, as well as their phone and tablet counterparts, not to mention Kobo’s competitors, plus the others – Google Play Books and Apple’s iPhone and iPad bookstore – digital readers have a choice, c ‘is on.

But these choices usually focus on one or two specific media: books and magazines. You can even find a few newspapers on it, but it’s usually a book and a magazine.

There are, of course, many other mediums and as such there are other things to consume. For example, Audible tends to expand Amazon’s reading platform with audiobooks, while Apple News + offers magazines for consumption.

And yet, there is still more out there. If you want to read comics or music, Australians usually don’t have much to watch, but that could change soon.

Another player has emerged in Australia, as Scribd launches a competitor like Kindle and Kobo, focusing not only on books, but also on magazines, articles, audiobooks, podcasts and something really surprising, sheet music. .

It’s also a slightly different approach to an eReader platform, and not just because of the diversity on offer, but because Scribd allows its users to upload documents to read and share. This may include reports and documents, but a quick glance reveals that certain comics may appear as well, providing a very diverse platform for reading.

For $ 13.99 per month with a 30-day trial, Scribd offers Australians access to an extensive library of content in the categories it caters to, and based on what we’ve seen, can offer a access to other platforms as part of what subscribers pay. However, it won’t just be a library of international content, but something where local stories have been taken into account.

Locally at launch, Scribd worked with Allen & Unwin, Fremantle Press, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster Australia, to name a few, including Australian name books alongside the International Library.

“We’re excited to spotlight great Australian authors and content,” said Andrew Weinstein, vice president of content, acquisition and strategy at Scribd.

“Scribd has a long history of relationships with publishers, and we are committed to helping generate additional revenue for the local publishing ecosystem,” he said.

“We know reading is one of Australia’s top three leisure pursuits and we look forward to helping nurture this love of reading. “

Armed with everything the community downloads, along with magazines, podcasts, and sheet music, Scribd clearly represents an intriguing offering, although it is the user library that might end up being the most interesting.

Take a look at the Scribd library and you’ll quickly see that this is where all the comics for the service are located, which is new in Australia. However, if you sign up for user downloads, it is quite possible that one day you will see them disappear.

Scribd’s policies suggest that it will remove content that users are not permitted to download, which we believe may see some of this additional content library disappear in the future. Not everything, of course, but a category like Comics, which can offer thousands of issues on the service, might not be there beyond user downloads, and might also see them removed later.

We’re checking with Scribd what this means for the scope of its service and whether the platform is working with comic book publishers to provide a local subscription of content, and not just whatever Scribd users have downloaded.

For now, however, Scribd’s service will respond to both what it offers – ebooks, magazines, podcasts, and sheet music galore – as well as anything uploaded by its users. Australians are keen to see what this offer can do with the Scribd app for iOS and Android, which is available now, with a subscription of $ 13.99 per month.