Spotify Expands Audiobook Access To Family Plan Members For The First Time

Spotify connected Thursday announced an description of its premium audiobooks service, pinch 2 caller plans that connection further listening hours to subscribers, and let different family members to entree nan service.

The options are presently only disposable for Spotify Premium users successful nan U.K., Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, nan Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, pursuing first tests successful Ireland and Canada.

U.S. users could already acquisition 15 hours of listening as a standalone offering done an Audiobooks Access Plan, but these additions make it imaginable for those successful different markets to customize their entree to their ain needs.

The first caller plan, Audiobooks+, offers Premium subscribers, aliases those who negociate nan household’s Family aliases Duo plan, to adhd 15 hours of listening each period connected apical of nan guidelines plan. Today, Spotify’s Premium plans see 15 hours of audiobook listening, truthful this caller scheme doubles that offering, ensuring subscribers tin get done longer books aliases moreover a mates of shorter ones successful nan month.

The different caller plan, Audiobooks+ for Plan Members, will beryllium an moreover much invited summation for those who want to stock entree to audiobooks: Members connected Premium Family and Duo plans will beryllium capable to entree 15 hours of monthly audiobook listening, too.

Similar plans will later get successful nan U.S., Spotify told TechCrunch.

To usage nan feature, scheme members will first petition audiobook entree from their scheme manager, who purchases nan caller add-on. Members tin besides later bargain a one-time top-up of 10 hours if they tally retired of listening clip earlier nan adjacent billing cycle.

Spotify did not stock nan pricing for nan caller options, arsenic they alteration by market. A spokesperson said that users successful those markets tin sojourn nan Spotify.com/audiobooks page to study more.

One awesome publisher, HarperCollins, noted successful December that Spotify was moving to bring audiobooks to different family members connected shared plans. At a conference, HarperCollins CEO Brian Murra said that nan marketplace had imaginable for further maturation arsenic Spotify was astatine nan clip moving retired a “technical issue” pinch family plans that constricted audiobooks to nan plan’s in installments paper holder.

The streaming work sees AI arsenic different opportunity for description , saying successful past quarter’s net that it was moving pinch Eleven Labs to get much books narrated, including translating texts from English to different languages.

Spotify’s catalog now spans 375,000 audiobooks. However, buying audiobook hours alternatively of purchasing titles, arsenic pinch Amazon’s Audible, lets users research much pinch what they whitethorn want to perceive to, arsenic they won’t discarded money connected books they extremity up not liking and take not to finish.