Spotify announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding audiobook access to over 180 markets worldwide, including regions across Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The rollout is starting today and will continue over the coming months. With this move, more than 750 million users will be able to access audiobooks, allowing Spotify to better compete with both music streaming providers and audiobook apps like Audible.
Before this, audiobooks were available primarily in English-speaking markets like the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as in Germany.
The audio platform said it has more than 350,000 titles for its new markets and has increased its collection to include over 120 languages. With its launch in Spain, users in the country will have access to over 45,000 titles in Spanish.
Spotify is working with more than 300 publishers worldwide, including Planeta and Mondadori, to increase the number of titles available in different markets.
With a Premium subscription, users can listen to 12 hours of audiobooks in eligible countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, Norway, and Peru. People across the world can also purchase an Audiobook+ standalone subscription to get access to titles with a 15-hour allowance. Alternatively, users can buy individual titles directly.
Spotify is also adding an Audiobook+ add-on for student plans in select regions in November. The company said that since its launch last year, Audiobook+ has gained over 1 million subscribers and has fetched over 100 million in annual recurring revenue for the platform.
In February, the company launched a “Page Match” feature, which lets users scan a page of a physical book and find the corresponding point in the audiobook to listen to. Since the launch, 1 million people have been using the feature monthly, the company noted.
Spotify said that over the last year, monthly listeners of audiobooks grew by 40% and listening hours increased by 30%.
This year, the company introduced Audiobook Charts to let people discover popular titles. It also launched an AI-powered tool for authors to turn their books into audiobooks using models from ElevenLabs. Plus, Spotify started experimenting with physical sales of books through its audiobook platform in select markets like the U.S. and the U.K.
Source: TechCrunch
