Spotify Turns Up Audiobook Volume

On Tuesday in New York, Spotify announced an ambitious program to add audiobooks to its digital audio platform.

Over the last decade, digital audio has consistently brightened balance sheets for publishers, growing by double-digits year over year, with total US digital audio revenue for publishers expected soon to surpass that of e-books. Estimated industry-wide audiobook revenue is now nearly $1.8 billion, according to the Audio Publishers Association annual survey.

Enter Spotify, which announced an ambitious program to add audiobooks to its digital audio platform on Tuesday.

“At a glitzy, globally live-streamed party on the 72nd floor of its headquarters at Four World Trade Center in Manhattan, Spotify rolled out the red carpet for its authors and publisher partners,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly executive editor.

“And this is really an important venture: Under the new time-based subscription program, Spotify premium paid subscribers will now get15 hours a month to access more than 150,000 audiobooks, including titles from all the major publishers,” he explains.

While New York Times coverage reported on concerns that Spotify’s new subscription audiobook service is potentially a risky move for publishers, Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally that publishers he spoke were not worried but wowed.

“I spoke with leaders from the Big Five who all told me the same thing—that they are very happy with the economic considerations and that Spotify has been an excellent partner to work with over the years that it has taken to get to this moment,” Albanese says.

“The real value here is access to 220 million paid Spotify subscribers, many of them young, many of them who may be discovering audiobooks for the first time.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Velocity of Content” features the editors and reporters of Publishers Weekly for an early look at what news publishers, editors, authors, agents, and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.