The Audiobook Hub on Spotify

audiobook hub

Spotify announced Monday that it is launching audiobooks, making its platform a “true all-in-one destination for all your listening needs.” It’s a move that broadens the company’s offering beyond music and podcasts.

The new audiobook hub on Spotify includes 300,000 titles from publishers large and small. Tapping on a title will show you a summary, an available sample and a lock icon next to it that lets you know it’s available for purchase.

But unlike Audible, which requires a subscription service to listen to audiobooks, Spotify will allow users to buy as they go. That means each title will be individually priced, rather than a set price that covers all books in the catalogue.

While Spotify opted to do this at launch, it plans to experiment with other models in the future. It might include a model that incorporates advertising, according to Nir Zicherman, the global head of audiobooks and gated content at Spotify.

To help make it easy to find and buy an audiobook, the company is also adding a new section within its Spotify app called “Audiobooks” that will display recommendations and a list of all available titles. These recommendations will be based on algorithms, as it does for music and podcasts.

It’s still early days for this new format, so we won’t see all the usual social features that we’ve come to expect from Spotify, but the company says it will try to improve discovery over time. Currently, you can’t see what other people on the platform are listening to, and you can’t rate books as you would with music or podcasts.

As a result, it’s not clear how many people will want to start using Spotify to listen to audiobooks. It could work, however, for authors who haven’t found their audience on other services yet.

Pricing and free previews

The new system is a change from how most people have listened to audiobooks on other services. After a brief preview, you’ll be directed to a transactional website to complete the purchase. The website will accept most payment methods and will not use the app stores’ own payment systems, according to Spotify.

Once the book has been purchased, it will be unlocked in Spotify and saved to your library. You’ll also have the option to download it for offline listening, bookmark your spot and control playback speed, among other things.

Spotify didn’t provide any pricing specifics for audiobooks, but it said that royalty rates will be in line with industry norms. The company also plans to offer an option to buy credits, or subscriptions, which would allow you to access the service’s “Audiobook Clubs” feature, which gives you a selection of thousands of audiobooks to listen to for a month.