ebook Club/Subscription - Next 'it' thing in publishing?

So, today Sourcebooks announced a new program --an ebook club/subscription plan called Discover a New Love. A paid membership entitles readers to receive a 'free' featured novel a month, 40% off of pricing (this is an Agency Pricing publisher, so that's a big deal because they can't be discounted elsewhere), and even advance access to releases (up to 30 days before street release). They are even DRM free. (I posted here because they have a huge romance offer)

To launch, they are offering an introductory 6 month subscription for $9.99 total cost (that's $1.67 a book if you only download the 1 book free a month).

It looks like Sourcebooks is finally taking full advantage of the Agency Price plan, and this offer is designed to a large audience to sign up fast, which will help them get huge lift and get line of sight on readers for direct marketing campaigns, demographics and all kinds of other info that publishers haven't had easy access to with a book reseller in the middle.

So, is this the new 'it' thing in publishing? Will we see more publishers jumping to offer such a 'club'? What are your thoughts about this?

According to a report by Jane on dearauthor.com:

I asked how authors would get paid and was told “Readers prepay for their monthly selections, and their payment is attributed to whatever book they choose as their pick for the month. This isn’t a subscription program. Authors are paid their regular ebook royalty.“

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Anyone know what the Sourcebook ebook royalty is based on --net or list? Because that doesn't say if the author gets paid on the 40% discount the club offers or the full $7.99 (or whatever) Agency list price.

FWIW, I thought it was a deal and signed up. I like the innovative approach. I also expect other publishers to follow suit.