Spotify launches audiobooks in the US, expansion will follow later

Spotify now offers a range of audiobooks in the United States in addition to music and podcasts. It concerns 300,000 titles that can be found via the search function and separate tab in the app. Spotify wants to bring the audiobooks to more markets later.

Spotify audiobooks

It comes as no surprise, because in June Spotify already very clearly announced its ambitions around audiobooks. After music and podcasts, the next focal point is for the popular app. From now on, users in the United States can take advantage of an offer of 300,000 audiobooks.

You can purchase these books individually and they are therefore accessible to both Premium and Free users. Spotify clearly sees the US launch as a first step, and plans to roll out the feature to more markets at a later date. It is not clear whether the Netherlands and Belgium are the next countries on the company’s wish list.

“The offerings available in the US today are only the first form of audiobooks on Spotify,” Nir Zicherman, Spotify’s vice president and the chief executive in charge of audiobooks, wrote in a blog post. “We’ll have a lot to learn with this launch, and we’re going to work with those findings. Then we’ll have new features, expand into more markets, and innovate the format for listeners, authors and publishers.”

Major Competitors

Audiobooks on Spotify already contain many features that are known from competing platforms. You can download audiobooks so that you can listen offline, but it is possible to change the playback speed and leave a rating for books. Spotify will eventually have to compete with competitors such as Google Play Books and Amazon’s Audible. If the function is also active in our market, then Kobo, Bol.com and Storytel will be added to the list.

We also recently wrote about a major interface update for the Spotify app. This made it possible to filter more easily between different types of content, namely music, podcasts and – in the US – also audiobooks. Do you think it would be useful that Spotify now also offers audiobooks, or do you already have a book collection on another platform? Let us know in the comments.