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As Spotify expands its audiobook offering to four new, non-English markets, the company states it paid hundreds of millions on an annualized basis to audiobook publishers.
In the past few months, it has also increased the number of titles available to premium members from 150,000 to 300,000. The figures show that the platform’s entry into the audiobook market is contributing to major growth for audiobook publishers overall. The firm’s CEO, Daniel Ek, wrote on X: “We’ve already paid hundreds of millions to publishers, and are excited about [all] the new opportunities now available to authors.”
It’s been one year since we launched Audiobooks for Spotify Premium users and it’s been really cool to watch the excitement from both listeners and authors grow. A few things to share:
💰 We’ve already paid hundreds of millions to publishers, and are excited about the all the…
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) October 15, 2024
According to Bookstat, in the U.S. where Spotify launched Audiobooks in Premium last Autumn, the audiobook industry would have grown at a rate of 14%. When you add Spotify to the overall picture, the market grew by 28%.
Spotify expands Audiobooks into parts of Europe amid massive growth
A spokesperson told ReadWrite that with 28% of Spotify’s users located in Europe, the company will continue investing in and growing the available audience and revenue pies for publishers and authors.
Hence, for the first time, eligible Spotify Premium subscribers in France, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg will be able to access more than 200,000 audiobook titles as part of their subscriptions.
Antoine Monin, Spotify Western Europe managing director, said: “Since our launch in Western Europe 16 years ago, Spotify has evolved into a leading platform for music, podcasts, and now audiobooks.”
He continued: “We are proud to spotlight this region’s rich literary tradition, with 15,000 French and 15,000 Dutch titles joining our catalog, advancing our mission to empower audio creators globally and connect them with audiences both locally and internationally.”
Head of Spotify’s Audiobooks Business, David Kaefer, added: “This launch is a step towards growing the pie for everyone in the industry, supporting authors in finding new audiences, and making it easier for people to discover the audiobooks format.”
“This is very good news for audiobooks and books in general. The dominant audiobook business model doesn’t help sell content,” said Eric Marbeau, director of digital distribution at Madrigall.
Featured image: Ideogram
