Despite a handful of competitors, Audible has dominated the audiobook world for years. But Spotify, initially specializing in music streaming, plans to gain market share from Amazon’s solution. After the podcast, today they are Audiobooks which arrive in Europe (France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) a year after their launch in the US.
Some terms for audiobooks on Spotify
Since October 14, Spotify subscribers have been enjoying a catalog of 200,000 audiobooks at no extra cost, including 15,000 in French. Includes books from publishing houses such as Hachette, Editis or Madrigall. This access also works with Duo and Family plans, though only account holders can access it here. If an audiobook is not included in the offer, it is still possible to purchase it individually, including for non-premium users. Some books, free or old, are also available to listen to without paying a cent.
Another size limitation, offering only twelve hours of listening per month (compared to fifteen on Atlantic). If you want to go further, you have to pay 9.99 euros per 10 hours of listening. In addition, it is Spotify that chooses the duration necessary to listen to a work: you will be charged a certain amount of time to read a book, even if you skip passages or speed up the reading.
A still young offering
To David Kiefer, head of music and audiobooks at Spotify:The launch is a step towards increasing profitability for all players in the sector, helping authors find new audiences and making the audiobook format easier to explore.“
See you in a few months to see if the sauce ends on the level of both readers and “sector players”.