Spotify Premium sub to include access to 150,000 Audiobooks, with a 15-hour monthly limit

Spotify has announced plans to add 150,000 audiobooks to its Premium subscription at no additional charge. The service will initially be available in the U.K. and Australia, with plans to expand to the U.S and other markets later this year (still to be announced). This move was already expected, as less than a month ago, we reported that the streaming platform was testing a free audiobook bundle for paid subscribers.

Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, sees substantial growth potential in audiobooks and aims to use tools developed for music and podcast discovery for this new venture. Previously, Spotify users had to buy audiobooks from the company's website, a workaround necessitated by app store regulations. The inclusion of audiobooks in the Premium service is expected to enhance user engagement, decrease churn, and bolster Spotify's revenue and profits, emerging as a formidable rival to established services such as Amazon's Audible.

The platform will offer a total catalogue of 300,000 titles, with half available to Premium subscribers limited to 15 hours of usage per month. Additional listening hours can be purchased. The platform will provide editorial recommendations, personalized audiobook suggestions, curated shelves, and taste onboarding. Authors will be given tools to track the performance of their titles and users will be able to share their favorite audiobooks and create playlists.