(New York) Spotify launched its audiobook offer in the United States on Tuesday, a new step in the platform’s strategy which seeks to bring together all the products that can be listened to in the same destination.
Posted at 2:18 p.m.
The Swedish company listed in New York now offers some 300,000 shares for purchase, it announced in a press release on Tuesday.
The acquisition of an audio book will be done through a web page, that is to say outside the application.
This technique is used by other platforms – to subscribe to Netflix for example – to avoid paying a commission to the operator of the smartphone operating system, Apple (iOS) or Google (Android).
At the beginning of June, Spotify had presented the audio book as one of the major axes of its development. Last year, the group took control of audiobook specialist Findaway.
In June, chief executive Daniel Ek raised the prospect of an audiobook offering available free to subscribers to the service with advertising, which was not mentioned in Tuesday’s statement, all books available for a fee.
According to Nir Zicherman, head of the activity, this launch in the United States “is only the first release of audiobooks on Spotify”, explained the leader in the press release. It will be used, among other things, to prepare the launch on other markets, according to him.
“We have partnerships with major publishing houses and independents, as well as authors, and we will increase our catalog in the future,” Spotify told AFP.
All the titles offered on Tuesday on the platform are existing references and were not directly produced by Spotify.
Before this kick-off, the Swedish company had made inroads into the audio book and already offered, on its platform, many titles available to subscribers of the paid or free formula with advertising.
In 2020, he put an audio version of the first volume of the literary series online for free. Harry Potterread by celebrities and produced by the platform.
Spotify competes with audiobook giant Audible, a subsidiary of Amazon, which currently dominates the market.
According to the firm Grand View Research, the world market for audio books could be multiplied by seven by 2030 and reach a turnover of 35 billion dollars per year, against 5 currently.