At the London Book Fair this week, Spotify showcased its growing commitment to the audiobook market, emphasizing the significant strides it has made since launching audiobooks as part of its premium offering. This announcement came from Duncan Bruce, Spotify’s Director of Partnerships & Licensing for audiobooks, who highlighted the evolution and expansion of the company's audiobook ecosystem.
Since the rollout of audiobooks as part of Spotify's Premium service back at the beginning of 2023, the platform has seen its audiobook catalog balloon from 150,000 to 400,000 titles, particularly targeted at English-language markets. This considerable growth is attributed to new collaborations with renowned publishers such as Bloomsbury, Podium, and Crooked Lane Books.
Looking beyond the English-speaking world, Spotify has recently expanded its audiobook offerings to international audiences, launching services successfully across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This includes promising developments from last year, indicating early successes as they tap new markets.
But it’s not just about the numbers. Spotify is focused on enhancing user engagement and connecting listeners with the stories they would love. Rather than relying on traditional credit-based models for content consumption, Spotify encourages users to explore audiobooks through both algorithmic recommendations and human curation. The company's approach has led to exciting discoveries, with the platform seeing a 30% increase year-over-year in audiobook listeners across the U.K., U.S., and Australia, and over 35% rise in audiobook listening hours during the same period.
The positive trends don’t stop there. According to Nielsen’s Bookdata for the U.K., 24% of audiobook consumers reported listening to audiobooks for the first time this year, signifying the campaign's success to attract new audiences. This is also translating to financial success, with Spotify reportedly paying hundreds of millions of dollars to rights holders annually. Meanwhile, audiobook revenues have surged by 23% within the United States alone, feeding growth within the broader book publishing ecosystem which saw its overall revenues increase by 6.5% over the same period.
A unique aspect of Spotify's audiobooks approach is its ability to breathe life back through backlist and niche titles. These often overlooked gems are finding new audiences through Spotify, providing fresh revenue streams. Remarkably, seven of the top ten audiobooks on Spotify in the U.K. during 2024 were backlist titles, with five being over five years old. Bruce remarked, cThis growth has been fueled by some of Spotifys more recent deals with leading publishers.d
Expanding its existing audiobook projects, Spotify recently unveiled its latest initiative: a new publishing program for authors to pitch short-form stories for transformations to audiobooks. Announced on March 13, 2025, the company will manage the entire process—production and distribution—to other major audiobook retailers, with selected authors receiving both advances and royalties on their submissions.
This new program seeks work across romance, mystery/thriller, and sci-fi/fantasy genres, encouraging innovative cross-genre tales. Authors are urged to submit novelettes ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 words, underlining Spotify's intent to capture diverse storytelling formats and cater to modern audiences. Notably, Spotify will not entertain submissions of erotica or children’s literature, narrowing its focus to adult titles with commercial potential. This initiative is expected to ramp up Spotify's competitive stance against major audiobook player Audible, which has dominated the audio world through its exclusive offerings.
The effort to transition from music and podcasts to audiobooks was solidified with Spotify’s acquisition of Findaway, a digital audiobook distributor, back in 2021. This buyout expanded Spotify’s capabilities across production, distribution, and author connections with voice actors, centralizing ambitions within the audiobook vertical. Following this acquisition, Spotify had rolled out free audiobook listening for Premium subscribers, already accessing approximately 15 hours of audiobook content monthly. This fresh feature opened the door for consumers to explore various audiobooks, providing options to purchase additional hours as needed.
Spotify has recently incorporated AI voice technology from ElevenLabs to narrate selected audiobook titles, making advancements within the audiobook space by leveraging technology to innovate content delivery.
With Spotify eagerly pushing its audiobook agenda forward, Bruce commented, cWe are incredibly excited about the future of audiobooks and remain committed to innovation, expansion and building features.d Audiobooks have undoubtedly become central to the evolution of storytelling and content consumption habits, and Spotify aims to lead this transformative wave.
With these continuous developments and ambitious strategies, Spotify is poised to emerge as a pivotal force within the audiobook industry, ensuring stories—regardless of their publication dates or genres—reach listeners effectively and engagingly.