Spotify's Page Match Seamlessly Swaps Between Real Books And Audiobooks

I person a love-hate narration pinch Spotify that mightiness conscionable beryllium leaning much towards emotion today. While I struggle pinch some of nan company's choices astir the type of contented it allows connected its platform, I person ever had a soft spot for its Wrapped roundups and nan monthly audiobook hours included with my Premium subscription. For those for illustration me, Spotify’s news coming will apt heighten nan entreaty of its audiobook offerings. It’s announcing a business pinch Bookshop.org — which lets indie bookstores waste their wares online done a unified level — allowing users to bargain beingness books from wrong its app, and launching a caller Page Match characteristic that helps sync your advancement crossed nan beingness books you publication and nan audiobooks successful Spotify’s catalog. Also, nan audiobook recap characteristic that summarizes nan crippled truthful acold is expanding to Android this spring, following its iOS debut (in beta form) past fall.

Page Match is coming to each places wherever Spotify’s audiobooks are available, starting pinch nan English connection titles successful its 500,000-strong library. Meanwhile, you tin entree Bookshop wrong nan Spotify app successful nan US and nan UK, wherever Bookshop operates.

Though I’m thrilled that this will mean easier and greater support of independent bookstores successful those areas, I’m much excited by nan imaginable of Page Match, which I previewed astatine a caller motorboat arena successful nan company’s offices successful New York. I’m nan benignant of personification who sounds nan aforesaid title successful its ebook, beingness and audio forms. (I often wish that a acquisition of a beingness book came pinch free ebook and audio versions, but that’s too nan point.)

While Kindles presently do a decent occupation of getting you to your latest page publication crossed various devices, switching between, say, Martha Wells’ All Systems Red on Spotify and nan paperback transcript is not rather arsenic easy. With Page Match, though, that should get a batch easier.

How does Spotify Page Match work?

When you get entree to nan characteristic (which is rolling retired today), you’ll find nan Page Match fastener nether nan title of each audiobook. You’ll person to first look up nan book connected Spotify and pat into its afloat section database to find this, which intends nan book you want to usage has to beryllium 1 of nan hundreds of thousands successful nan company’s library. Then, pat nan greenish “Scan to listen” fastener if you’re looking to move complete to nan audio type aliases “Scan to read” beneath it if you’re switching complete to a difficult transcript instead.

Whichever you pick, you’ll request to alteration entree to your device’s camera and past scan nan page of nan book you’re on. This should activity connected ereaders arsenic well, and appears to beryllium utilizing immoderate shape of optical characteristic nickname to lucifer nan portion of nan book to its audio counterpart.

If you’re scanning to listen, nan process is reasonably straightforward. Once you’ve placed nan page successful nan viewfinder, nan app will quickly jump to that very spot successful nan section track. I’ll statement that it was difficult for maine to corroborate whether this really worked during my first demo, since I ne'er felt for illustration I recovered nan words being spoken connected nan page I was looking at. In this case, it was Lights Out: An Into Darkness novel by Navessa Allen, and I mostly felt for illustration nan narration had simply gone past nan page I was on, alternatively than a complete failure. Subsequent attempts pinch different books, for illustration Stephen King’s It, were much effective.

Things get a spot trickier erstwhile you’re trying to move from audio book to nan insubstantial (or ereader). After pressing “Scan to read,” you’ll request to spot a page successful beforehand of nan camera and hold for it to show you to move guardant aliases backward. Ideally, you’d already cognize much aliases little wherever you were, truthful you won’t person to flip excessively galore pages.

In my demo, because we were a fewer chapters excessively acold from wherever we paused successful nan early portion of It, location was a batch much page-turning required to get to nan correct spot. What I recovered adjuvant was nan advancement barroom astatine nan bottommost of nan screen, which highlighted nan correct location and really acold distant we were from it. The instructions “Move forward” and “Move back” were clear and came up successful a timely manner. When we yet landed connected nan correct page, nan surface highlighted nan circumstantial lines connected nan page to commencement from, too.

I person to caveat this pinch nan study that location were a fewer starts and stops during my demo, which were resolved erstwhile I established a coagulated net connection. And though “Scan to read” did yet activity arsenic promised, location was a spot of flipping astir that seemed to beryllium portion of nan process, which mightiness beryllium tedious and not rather nan magical acquisition immoderate mightiness expect.

The bully news is that Spotify seems to already beryllium moving connected moreover much features to make it easier to publication beingness books successful tandem pinch listening to audiobooks. The institution said it sees “the early of reference arsenic 1 that’s personalized, flexible, and built to move fluidly crossed formats and moments. Page Match is an early illustration of really Spotify is helping style that early astatine scale. “