Spotify’s plan to take over the audio world

Spotify users in the US are now able to purchase and listen to more than 300,000 different audiobook titles, the company announced yesterday. Which means you can now toggle from Call Her Daddy to George Orwell's 1984 to "WAP" – all without changing apps.

🎧📚 More deets… Unlike Audible, where you sign up for a monthly subscription, each of the books on Spotify are available for purchase à la carte, aka individually. The company plans to experiment with other models in the future, possibly including one that would incorporate advertising.

And also unlike Audible (we’re sensing a theme), which uses in-app “credits,” Spotify uses its own website to process sales.

• This transaction pathway allows the company to circumvent the 30% cut that app stores usually take on transactions as a processing fee – though Amazon’s way works, too.

📸 Big picture: Audiobook revenues totaled $1.67 billion last year, up 25 percent from 2020, the New York Times reports.

And just like Nick Saban drooling over a highly-touted five-star QB recruit from Texas, Spotify sees a lot of potential. Case in point: audiobooks have up to 50% penetration in certain markets – despite making up just 6%–7% of the overall book industry.