Spotify to take audiobooks to 180 countries by end of 2026
Spotify will offer audiobooks in 180 countries by the end of 2026, reaching virtually all of its 750 million monthly active users.
The company announced the plan on Oct. 7, setting out its largest expansion for books so far. The move would take the service well beyond its current footprint, according to details reported by Billboard.
Spotify started with audiobooks for premium individual subscribers in the United States and the United Kingdom. It later extended that access to 22 markets.
Listening has grown quickly since then. Spotify said its audiobook listening hours increased 60% from 2024 to 2025.
Much of that growth is tied to a paid add-on. In mid-2025, Spotify launched Audiobooks+, priced at US$11.99 per month for premium subscribers. The plan lifts the listening allotment from 15 to 30 hours per month.
Spotify says more than 1 million premium subscribers now pay for Audiobooks+. The company estimated annual recurring revenue from the plan, the yearly income expected from those subscriptions, at US$100 million as of July.
Young listeners sit at the centre of the push. Spotify executives say roughly half of its audiobook listeners are younger than 35. Among users of its Page Match feature, the company says two-thirds are under 35.
Page Match is designed to link print and audio. It lets a subscriber resume listening on Spotify from the exact physical-book page where they stopped reading. Spotify claims Page Match users finish books twice as fast.
Spotify has also launched a partnership with Bookshop.org that allows subscribers to buy books in print. The company shares audiobook consumption and marketing data with authors and publishers through Spotify for Authors, its dashboard for the books trade.
Its production tools include an AI voice-over option for audiobooks that uses ElevenLabs technology, which creates spoken narration from text.
For listeners, this means one app for more of a reading habit. A paperback bought through the bookshop link can pick up as audio on a commute, then hand back to print at bedtime.
