Spotify expands audiobooks to 180 markets as add-on passes $100m
Spotify will take audiobooks to more than 180 markets by the end of 2026, up from 22 now.
The company set out the plan at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 7. It also said its Audiobooks+ add-on has passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue, the yearly sales run-rate from subscriptions, with more than 1 million subscribers, Music Business Worldwide reported.
Audiobooks+ lets listeners pay extra for more audiobook hours on top of their plan. Premium plans in many markets include a set number of listening hours each month. The add-on buys more time once those hours run out.
Once the rollout is complete, Spotify said more than 750 million people will be able to stream or buy books on its platform. The expansion includes Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia and Brazil.
Listeners in the new markets will have access to more than 350,000 titles in more than 120 languages. In Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, Norway and Peru, eligible Premium subscribers will get 12 hours of audiobook listening a month.
Student plans are being brought into the system too. From November, students in Ireland, Belgium, Austria and Finland will be able to buy extra hours through Audiobooks+.
Growth has been fast. Monthly audiobook listeners on Spotify grew by nearly 40% over the past year. Listening hours rose by more than 30% over the same period.
Spotify co-chief executive Alex Norstrom told the Frankfurt audience the company had taken roughly 20% of the United States audiobooks market within a couple of years.
Another feature is travelling with the expansion. Page Match, which picks up the audiobook at the same point as a print book or e-book, has been used by more than 1 million readers since February. It works in more than 30 languages.
The move builds on a launch that started small. In October 2023, Spotify gave Premium subscribers in the United Kingdom and Australia 15 hours of free audiobook listening, Reuters reported at the time. Tools for writers and publishers under Spotify for Authors are available in all markets, according to Spotify Support.
What makes this stand out is the scale. For listeners, books now sit next to music and podcasts in the same app. For authors and publishers, it opens a single shopfront across most of the world.
