Since entering the audiobooks space in 2022, Spotify has positively impacted the industry, paying out hundreds of millions of dollars to rights holders on an annualized basis. In its more mature markets, audiobooks have also become one of the biggest sources of revenue growth for publishers.
Spotify’s data shows a significant increase in unique listeners who are discovering the magic of audiobooks for the first time via the platform. By driving discovery and bringing in new audiences, Spotify is increasing overall audiobook consumption, which provides another avenue of growing revenue for authors and publishers.
Since launching Audiobooks in France and Benelux last October, Spotify has seen an average month-over-month growth of 12% in listeners and listening hours. In France, the company continues to bring a younger, more diverse audience to audiobooks, with nearly 60% of listeners aged 18 to 34 accounting for over half of all listening hours.
In order to continue to build opportunities for authors and publishers, especially in countries where the audiobook market isn’t yet mature, Spotify wants to support audiobook production. Today, the company is announcing a €1 million investment to increase the production of audiobooks in non-English languages, starting with French and Dutch.
This investment reinforces Spotify’s desire to grow the market for authors and publishers, particularly in markets where audiobooks are still growing as a format, while improving the catalog and consumer experience.
“Our aim is to help create long-term value for the publishing industry and build new revenue streams for partners. To do that we must attract new audiences whilst also retaining existing book lovers, and audiobooks can play a key role in that. But at the heart of that must be great books. With less than 3% of French-language books available in audio format today, this is a great opportunity to help publishers and authors find new readers,” said Jérémy Amsellem, Audiobooks Partnerships and Licensing Manager for Europe.
High production costs and slow market adoption have limited the number of non-English audiobooks available to listeners. In France, for example, there are approximately 750,000 titles in French, but approximately 20,000 audiobooks. In the Netherlands, there are approximately 15,000 audiobooks in Dutch from a total physical catalogue of 209,000.
Spotify believes in the power of human narration, and it will continue to work with partners and the narrator community to bring these titles to fans in French and Dutch languages. However, Spotify will also offer Digital Voice Narration as part of this investment to help make audiobook production more cost-effective for partners who require a lower barrier to entry. For listeners, AI-narrated titles will be clearly identified in the description with “this audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.”
Finally, Spotify understands that authors and publishers want to reach the widest possible audience. That’s why all cofunded audiobooks will be nonexclusive and made available on Spotify, with the option to host on any other major platform.
Spotify aims to create the best possible experience for authors, publishers, and listeners, and this investment marks another important step toward introducing audiobooks to new audiences, diversifying its catalog, and providing more choices in more languages than ever before.
Discover more about Spotify’s audiobooks offering at Spotify for Authors.
