The good news is there are around 300,000 audiobooks available to listen to via Spotify. The bad news is these are only available in the United States, at least for the time being. Obviously, these audiobook experiences aren’t offered for free regardless of whether or not you’re a Premium subscriber.
Just as we did with podcasting, this will introduce a new format to an audience that has never before consumed it, unlocking a whole new segment of potential listeners. This also helps us support even more kinds of creators and connect them with fans that will love their art—which makes this even more exciting.
A new audiobooks section will be visible on Spotify in the United States, alongside music and podcasts sections in each user’s library, in search, and in their curated recommendations on Home. Additionally, audiobooks will show up with a lock icon on the play button, which means they must be purchased in order to listen.
The audiobook experience comes with several nifty features to help further increase the immersion. For starters, Spotify users can download audiobooks for offline listening, and the service’s automatic bookmarking feature will allow them to pick up where they left off.
Another important feature is the ability to adjust the speed to your liking. Finally, Spotify included ta rating feature, which will publicly display the aggregate rating of the book.
Although audiobooks are only available in the United States at the moment, Spotify announced that this will act like a test for its new business, and if it proves to be successful, it will launch it in additional markets.
