Spotify is entering the audiobooks business. Yesterday, the company made 300,000 audiobooks available for sale in the US, and the company announced that it’s just the beginning. 

“Just as we did with podcasting, this will introduce a new format to an audience that has never before consumed it, unlocking a whole new segment of potential listeners. This also helps us support even more kinds of creators and connect them with fans that will love their art—which makes this even more exciting,” the company explained.

If you’re in the US, audiobooks now appear in Search and curated recommendations on the Spotify home page. They’ll have a lock icon on the play button to distinguish them from podcasts and music, and users will need to purchase them from a web page. 

Once purchased, audiobooks will appear in personal libraries and users will be able to download them for offline listening. Audiobooks in Spotify also support automatic bookmarking and different playback speeds. 

“The offering available today in the U.S. is just the first iteration of audiobooks on Spotify. We’ll learn a lot through this launch and leverage those learnings as we enhance the experience with new features, plan for launches in additional markets, and innovate on the format to benefit listeners, authors, and publishers, the company said.

Tagged with Spotify