Spotify continues to innovate to make its user base grow. The streaming service has struck deals with the world’s largest publishers to offer its subscribers free listens of audiobooks, which has been a pillar for Amazon. At first, paying Spotify subscribers in the UK and Australia will be able to listen to 15 hours a month of audiobooks (no additional cost) and then the programme will come to the US this winter.
Subscribers will have access to more than 150,000 titles, which Spotify estimates will include more than 70 per cent of The New York Times best-sellers list at any given moment. There will be titles from major publishers including Hachette, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and RB Media, as well as independent authors and publishers globally, including Bolinda, Dreamscape, and Pushkin.
“We believe that offering personalised music, podcasts, and audiobooks on a single platform gives you a superior way to connect with your favourite artistes, podcasters, creators, and authors — all in one spot. Not only can you listen to some of your favourite authors’ works, but you can also tune into podcasts where fans dissect the most minor details of a story and find the hidden meaning in every sentence, without leaving the app,” the company has said on its blog.
The move is driven by Spotify’s acquisition of the digital audiobook distributor Findaway and then it introduced audiobook purchasing to the app last September.
Spotify’s model is different from that of Audible. On Spotify, users can try out as many audiobooks as they want from a set library but caps the included listening at 15 hours. If users want more, they can purchase an additional 10 hours of listening for $10.99. This will help the company get around Apple’s payment rules. The new move gives Spotify an opportunity to tap users who are new to audiobooks but then, longer novels are not going to fit into 15 hours.
But it’s a win-win situation for publishers. Spotify has 220 million premium paying members worldwide and this can help publishers reach a new audience. Further, Spotify has the tools to recommend relevant audiobooks to podcast listeners.
