Spotify launches audiobook retailer with some 300,000 titles

The increasing audio books market has a serious new retailer: Spotify.

On Tuesday, the music streaming service introduced its long-rumored audiobook initiative, launching a retailer that features greater than 300,000 titles, together with such standard works as Delia Owens’ “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends With Us.” Spotify has beforehand supplied audio books on a restricted foundation, together with J.Ok. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and such public area novels as Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and Jane Austen’s “Persuasion.”

“We’ve always believed that the potential for audio is limitless, and have been saying for a while now that our ambition is to be the complete package for everyone’s listening needs,” Nir Zicherman, Spotify’s vice president and international head of audiobooks and Gated Content, mentioned Tuesday.

“Audiobooks are next to come into the picture because we see a substantial untapped market: while audiobooks represent just a 6-7% share of the wider book market, the category is growing by 20% year over year.”

Other obtainable works embody Dave Grohl’s “The Storyteller,” James McBride’s “Deacon King Kong” and Emily Henry’s “People We Meet On Vacation.”

At least initially, Spotify will promote audio books individually, not on a subscription foundation, at costs which might be “competitive” with different sellers. According to a Spotify spokesperson, “After assessing testing and user research, we found that the best initial offering would allow users to purchase books individually,” a coverage which “allows for pricing flexibility and for more casual listeners to access audio books easily.”

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