Spotify announces release of 150000 free audiobooks to Premium members

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen Brother Black fly's left hand and Alejandro86's clue delivery! CTOnews.com, October 4 (Xinhua)-- Spotify, a music streaming platform, has announced that it will launch 150000 free audiobooks to Premium members.

Daniel Ek, chief executive of Spotify, revealed that Spotify users in the UK, Australia and the US will be able to listen to 15 hours of high-quality audiobooks a month. "I believe this will bring a new generation of audiobooks to audiobooks," Ek said.

Spotify users can try any number of audiobooks from the library, including 150000 books from all major publishers, but listen for up to 15 hours. Beyond this time, users can spend $10.99 (currently about 80 yuan) to buy an additional 10 hours of listening time.

Spotify has continued to make efforts in audiobooks in recent years, and in 2022 it bought audiobook platform Findaway for $123 million (CTOnews.com Note: about 899 million yuan), adding about 300000 books. However, due to the in-app purchase restrictions of Google and Apple, this means that users cannot actually buy a book on most platforms, and the new model of subscription + listening time is expected to solve this problem.

CTOnews.com previously quoted the Wall Street Journal as saying that Spotify is working with some of the largest publishers in the United States on a pilot program to provide free audiobook trials to Premium members, which is scheduled to be launched in the coming months. Unlike the official announcement, the media had previously said that subscribers could enjoy up to 20 hours of listening time per month.