Books & Magazines
Play Books is a great app for reading ebooks. Users can purchase books from the Play Store and access them from any Android device or web browser. They can even upload epubs or PDFs from other sources, assuming they’re DRM free. If they aren’t (which they won’t be, more than likely, if you purchased a bestseller from any major online retailer), then you can’t read them here. Play Books is primarily intended for books from the Play Store.
There are also no shortage of niche and innovative ways to discover books. Tomely is filled with content from indie writers and publishers. Unbound is essentially Kickstarter for authors, where you can help fund the stories you want to read. Girlebooks offers text written exclusively by female writers. As for magazines, there’s always Zinio.
Music
There’s Jamendo, which provides listeners with free music from independent artists. Magnatune lets you download all-you-can-listen-to for a monthly fee. But these days, many people prefer to stream unlimited music rather than buy albums individually. Thankfully nearly all of the major players in this space have apps available. There’s Spotify, Beats Music, Rhapsody, and others.
Movies
If you happen to have some ripped DVD files lying around, Plex can manage those just fine, uploading them and streaming them to many of the devices in your home.
And if you just prefer physical products, there’s a Redbox app that lets you reserve and rent discs from the comfort of your phone.
Conclusion
Just because you own an Android device, that doesn’t mean you’re dependent on Google for your content. Just give any of these alternatives a go and try to keep control of your content in your own hands. If you have any other sources of books, music, or movies you would like to recommend, please share them with us below.
