Spotify audiobooks are finally coming to premium subscribers in Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, with plans to roll out the feature to the new markets on April 9. The news comes alongside the expansion of its catalog, which will grow to 250,000 titles.
Premium subscribers in the UK and Australia have had access to 15 hours of audiobooks from the Home page of the Spotify app every month since October 3, 2023. When it first launched, there were only 150,000 titles available to listen to but that quickly grew to 200,000 by the time it was launched in the US on November 9.
It's clear Spotify's audiobook upgrade is proving to be a hit with premium subscribers, but if you're new to the service then you can start exploring what's on offer via the audiobooks hub on its site or try out one of the below recommendations from authors, including Canada’s Carley Fortune, New Zealand’s Chloe Gong, and Ireland’s Rosemary Mac Cabe:
- The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, narrated by Tom Hanks
- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna, narrated by Samara MacLaren
- Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner, narrated by the author
Spotify goes head-to-head with Amazon
Compared to the best music streaming services, Spotify has the biggest feature set for all things audio. We consider it to be one of the more social audio streamers, thanks to the interactive tools it has for sharing your listening experience with others, and its ability to add such features – like audiobooks.
As a business, Spotify makes up more than 30% of the entire global audio streaming market, according to data from the third quarter of 2023 gathered by Statista. That's a sizeable chunk and one that makes it a market leader in the space, beating out rivals such as Amazon Music, which has an 11% share in comparison.
But Amazon isn't a small player when it comes to audiobooks. We rate its Audible business as the best audiobook site for listening to your favorite books online and we're not alone. It's by far the most dominant service for audiobooks around, with Apple Books and Google Play Books not quite having the same reach.
While the audiobook market as a whole is still in its infancy – the medium is mostly popular with younger demographics (see infographic above) with only 18% of the global market penetrated as of this year – there's speculation that it could almost double in the next two years, so I'm not expecting Spotify's audiobook rollout to slowdown any time soon.
Spotify premium subscribers can access 15 hours of audiobooks for free every month, with 10-hour top ups purchasable for $12.99 in the US, £9.99 in the UK and AU$15.99 in Australia.
