Spotify finally deploys its audiobook offering in France

Despite a handful of competitors, Audible has dominated the audiobook world for years. But Spotify, initially specialized in music streaming, intends to grab market share from Amazon's solution. After the podcasts, today they are the audiobooks which arrive in Europe (France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands), one year after their launch in the United States.

Some conditions for audiobooks on Spotify

Since October 14, Spotify subscribers have been able to benefit from a catalog of 200,000 audio books at no extra cost, including 15,000 in French. Books from publishing houses like Hachette, Editis or Madrigall are included. This access also works with the Duo and Family plans, although here only the account holder can have it. If an audiobook is not included in the offer, it is still possible to purchase it individually, including for non-Premium users. Certain books, free or old, are also available to listen to without having to pay a cent.

Another size limitation, only twelve hours of listening per month are offered (compared to fifteen across the Atlantic). If you want to go further, you will have to pay 9.99 euros per 10 hours of listening. In addition, it is Spotify which chooses the duration necessary to listen to a work: a fixed time will be deducted from you per reading of a book, even if you skip passages or accelerate the reading speed.

A still young offer

For David Kaefer, Head of Music and Audiobooks at Spotify: “This launch is a step towards increasing profits for all players in the sector, helping authors find new audiences and making it easier to discover the audiobook format.“

See you in a few months to see if the sauce takes off, both at the level of readers and “sector players”.