Spotify starts selling audiobooks and introduces changes to better tailor the music streaming service's app for audiobooks. First of all, the audio books are not offered in a subscription, but each audio book must be purchased individually. There are more than 300,000 audio books to choose from at launch.
Spotify wants to establish audio books in the US
The market leader Audible currently has around 760,000 audio books on offer. Spotify's service will initially only be launched in the USA, but as usual, expansion to other regions is only a matter of time and Spotify has already announced the prospect of launching in the USA. However, Spotify does not go into detail when and in which regions audio books will be offered next. The fact that Spotify is starting to sell audio books in the USA may be due to the comparatively low distribution of this format in the USA. Spotify hopes that it can attract as many new users as possible who are new to the format. In Germany, individual audio books and radio plays are already available as part of Spotify's normal premium subscription. It is not yet known whether these will disappear from the subscription if a fee-based individual purchase is also introduced in Germany.
Publisher sets price
According to Spotify, the price for an audio book is not set by the publishing house. There is therefore no fixed price that users can use as a guide, and purchasing an audio book is still extremely cumbersome to begin with. Because instead of being able to buy an audio book directly in the Spotify app using a stored payment method, users have to purchase the audio book via an external website in order to return to the Spotify app for playback after the purchase.
Bookmarks, speed and other adjustments in app
To differentiate paid tracks from Spotify's regular subscription-based content, Spotify will display a lock icon on the play button if content requires purchase before listening.
Since audio books are consumed differently than music titles, Spotify will also integrate a bookmark function into the app, so that when books are read aloud, you can quickly jump to the point where you last interrupted the audio book and continue listening. The playback speed should also be adjustable by the user. As with music tracks, it will also be possible to download audio books so that you can listen to them on the go without an internet connection. Ratings allow users to recommend or discourage audiobooks from other users.
It remains to be seen whether Spotify will roll out these changes to the app outside of the US before the paid offering launches in those regions still unclear. In Germany, too, they can already be used sensibly for the audio books that are already available via subscription.