How the new audiobook service that Spotify launches today works

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spotify gf47091dcd 1280 1.jpg
spotify gf47091dcd 1280 1.jpg

We have been talking about the landing of Spotify in the audiobook sector for some time now. Well, Spotify has just announced that from today, in addition to being able to listen to music and podcasts, it is also possible to listen to audiobooks, yes, for now for users in the United States.

Now, initially, Spotify users will be able to select and try selected titles from an initial catalog of more than 300,000 audiobook titles through the Spotify app to choose those they wish to obtain by paying individually for each of them. , taking them to an external website to complete the purchases.

From Spotify they want to know the behavior that users will have under this commercial format as a start in the adventure with audiobooks, although they are open to the arrival of other types of commercial formats in the future, including the possibility of a commercial format based on audiobooks financed by advertising.

For Nir Zicherman, head of audiobooks at Spotify:

While we have ambitions to introduce new audiobook business models in the future, in speaking with industry partners, we felt that a la carte was the best way to start activating audiobooks and learn from how people interact with individual titles.

In this way, they will have their own collection of audiobooks that they can listen to from the application even without an Internet connection, being able to pick up where they left off listening to an audiobook at a previous moment.

In addition, they will have different speed options, and once they have listened to an audiobook, they will be able to share their own classification based on the degree of satisfaction they have obtained with it.

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Spotify thus becomes “the home of all the audio you love”. Regarding the initial catalog, there are titles from the main publishers, but also titles carried out by independent creators, let’s not forget that at the beginning of the year, Spotify acquired Findaway, a specialized platform where fans of creating audiobooks can create and Distribute your own titles.

According to Spotify in its statement:

We’ve always believed that the potential of audio is limitless, and we’ve been saying for a while that our ambition is to be the complete package for everyone’s listening needs. Audiobooks are next to image because we see a substantial untapped market: While audiobooks represent only a 6% to 7% share of the broader book market, the category is growing 20% ​​year over year.

In this way, Spotify moves further away from the exclusive dependence on music by expanding the reach to more formats of audio content. At the moment there is no information about the expansion of the audiobook function to other markets beyond that at the moment its planning is being carried out.

More information: Spotify