Hoopla and Marvel

DC Comics has all of it's most recent trades available day and date on a library lending service called Hoopla, where you use your library card number to "check out" the trades digitally and then "return" them. Limited to 6 a month, but pretty cool.

Marvel offerings on Hoopla are much more limited (Basically just a few older trades and collections). Any idea why this is? Is any greater availability imminent? A lot of X-Men titles have come out and they are too expensive for me to keep up on, so it'd be useful to catch up on those.

I'm not entirely sure myself. I know there are similar services to Hoopla, but I don't know if there's one that Marvel has a similar arrangement to how DC works with Hoopla.

It doesn't really matter much to me I guess, I really only use Hoopla for DC titles. But with both companies now having their own "Unlimited" subscription services I just don't know why one would shy away from going all in on Hoopla.

I have actually never heard of this and I'm speaking out of pure admitted ignorance on how the site maybe set up... but it sounds like a terrible idea for a business who actively depends on weekly to monthly sales and back content to give out their library for free. It also seems like a very bad idea when you are running your own subscription service for you back catalogue.

Not mention any other deals with "partners/venders" like comixology.

[QUOTE=DragonsChi;4319779]I have actually never heard of this and I'm speaking out of pure admitted ignorance on how the site maybe set up... but it sounds like a terrible idea for a business who actively depends on weekly to monthly sales and back content to give out their library for free. It also seems like a very bad idea when you are running your own subscription service for you back catalogue.

Not mention any other deals with "partners/venders" like comixology.[/QUOTE]

The Libraries pay for the service as it encourages people to get a library card, and the service pays the various publishers for the material. Marvel/DC are still taking in money, and it creates another (as well as more affordable) option for people to become better acquainted with their library of characters. Some comics publishers even allow you to borrow single issues on the day of release from the service. It's probably not great for many LCS, but there's a benefit for publishers.

[QUOTE=Personamanx;4319809]The Libraries pay for the service as it encourages people to get a library card, and the service pays the various publishers for the material. Marvel/DC are still taking in money, and it creates another (as well as more affordable) option for people to become better acquainted with their library of characters. Some comics publishers even allow you to borrow single issues on the day of release from the service. It's probably not great for many LCS, but there's a benefit for publishers.[/QUOTE]

What percentage of profit do the publisher earn from a deal like this?

[QUOTE=DragonsChi;4320232]What percentage of profit do the publisher earn from a deal like this?[/QUOTE]

I don't know the specifics, only how it generally works. I would imagine that varies publisher to publisher much like the material they license to the platform.

What it costs the libraries depends largely on how many items it allows its cardholders to borrow each month. Some libraries can allow up to 20 monthly borrows, others may only allow 2 or 3. I wouldn't know the exact cost, but it is an expensive service.