Spotify is expanding its audiobook library to include more than 1,000 books from authors like Sarah J. Maas, Alan Moore, and Ann Patchett, thanks to a deal with publisher Bloomsbury. These new titles arrived just one day after Spotify introduced new audiobook tools, including playlists, visual accompaniment, and sleep timers.
The new audiobooks include adult fantasy novels such as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke), award-winning books such as Cuddy by Benjamin Myers, and children’s adventure books such as Impossible Creatures by Catherine Rundell. The new collection also includes non-fiction books by historians such as Peter Frankopan and the anthology Want, compiled by Gillian Anderson. Narrated by top talent including Meryl Streep, Emilia Clarke, Adjoa Andoh, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Spotify began offering audiobooks in the US a year ago. Premium subscribers have access to 15 hours of content per month (with an additional 10 hours available for $12.99). The average length of an audiobook is 8-12 hours, so a subscriber on the $11 premium plan can listen to about one book per month. Spotify announced today that it pays “hundreds of millions of dollars per year to publishers.”
Bloomsbury already offers audiobooks on Amazon’s Audible, and many of the titles mentioned above are already available on the platform (Want, Cuddy, etc.). For some audiobooks, if you want to listen to multiple tracks per month, it may be cheaper to buy them in bulk rather than topping up your Spotify account.
