Spotify is providing Premium subscribers entry to 150,000 audiobooks at no additional value — with a catch.
Spotify has introduced plans to increase its Premium subscription service to incorporate entry to a number of 150,000 audiobooks with no further cost. The brand new bundle launched immediately within the UK and Australia, with plans to launch within the US later this 12 months and extra markets quickly to observe.
“We imagine that providing personalised music, podcasts, and audiobooks on a single platform provides you a superior strategy to join along with your favourite artists, podcasters, creators, and authors — multi function spot,” says Spotify in a weblog publish. “Not solely are you able to hearken to a few of your favourite authors’ works, however you may as well tune into podcasts the place followers dissect essentially the most minor particulars of a narrative and discover the hidden which means in each sentence, with out leaving the app.”
The audio streaming large first launched audiobooks within the US in September final 12 months on the again of its acquisition of digital audiobook distributor Findaway. It expanded the providing into Canada and different English markets by early 2023.
On the time, Spotify stated it anticipated nice issues by tapping into the audiobook market, noting that the class was rising by 20% year-over-year, although audiobooks made up a roughly 7% share of the broader ebook market.
However Spotify’s audiobook expertise has been severely missing on the patron finish, with the corporate requiring customers to purchase audiobooks from the Spotify web site to play them in its app, as a way to bypass app retailer guidelines concerning in-app purchases. By bundling audiobooks as a part of the Premium service, customers can have a a lot simpler time discovering and listening to the books they need.
Whereas Spotify’s audiobooks catalog contained 300,000 titles at launch, solely half of these can be found by means of a Premium subscription. Notably, though Spotify touts customers can hearken to as many books as they need, it should restrict them to fifteen hours of audiobook listening per thirty days — with the choice to “prime off” with the acquisition of an extra 10 hours. Because the common audiobook is round 12 hours of listening time, most customers will discover they will solely end one ebook a month.