Spotify launches audiobooks in bid to dethrone Amazon’s Audible
Spotify has begun rolling out audiobook support for users in the US.
An entirely new section of the Spotify app will grant subscribers (Premium or otherwise) access to a catalog of more than 300,000 audiobook titles, with each book available to either purchase or preview via web pages outside of the app itself.
Purchased audiobooks will sit alongside users’ music and podcasts in their libraries, in search and in their recommendations on Home, while not-yet-purchased titles will appear with a lock icon over their respective play buttons.
Listeners can download content for offline listening, and Spotify’s automatic bookmarking feature will save their place so they can easily pick up where they left off. Speed control is also included, with a variety of options to speed up or slow down the pace of an audiobook.
“We’re excited to launch audiobooks with a brand-new user interface that’s geared specifically [towards] listening to audiobooks and fits them seamlessly alongside the music and podcasts you already listen to and love,” Spotify executive Nir Zicherman announced in a recent interview (opens in new tab) on the company’s For the Record podcast.
“This is just the beginning of Spotify’s audiobooks journey. We’ve been working to create a seamless audiobooks experience, and we’ll continue to build and innovate on this in the future,” Zicherman added.
Story developing: more to follow
Audio player loading… Spotify has begun rolling out audiobook support for users in the US. An entirely new section of the Spotify app will grant subscribers (Premium or otherwise) access to a catalog of more than 300,000 audiobook titles, with each book available to either purchase or preview via web…
