Audiobooks are now available on Spotify

The purchase of audiobooks is now available for Spotify users in the United States.

Here's What We Know

Spotify is launching audiobooks in its app. Right now it works like standard book-selling services - in order to listen to a book you have to buy it for full price. But the company has talked about new unique business models that may emerge in the future that will be more reminiscent of the freemium approach that listeners are used to with music and podcasts.

Right now, more than 30,000 different books are available to U.S. users at prices set by the authors themselves (similar to what Apple Books does). Listeners can listen to a book or an excerpt of a book in the app, and if they want to purchase, they'll be forwarded outside the app. This is different from popular audiobook services like Audible, where you pay a certain amount per month and get access to the entire library.

When We Can Expect It

Right now, the feature is only available in the U.S. There's no release date for other regions yet, but given how long it's taken for podcasts to reach us, it's unlikely audiobooks are worth waiting for anytime soon.

Source: The Verge