The most awaited Spotify audiobook service is now available in a few selected countries and Spotify users can now listen to their favorite books under just one platform.
With its vast selection of titles, the service offers both free and paid options to cater to different listening preferences. Audiobook narrators bring stories to life, enhancing the listening experience with their unique vocal talents.
Whether you enjoy classic literature or contemporary bestsellers, Spotify’s audiobook service provides a rich and engaging way to enjoy books on the go. In this article, we will provide a complete guide to Spotify audiobooks and whether it is better than other audiobook platforms.
Spotify Audiobooks: Overview
Spotify first launched its audiobook service in September 2022, with only 150,000 titles. Spotify audiobook currently provides access to over 250,000 titles, both free and paid. The business estimates that 15 hours should get you about two typical audio books each month. But once you’ve reached the limit, you can get a top-up of an additional 10 hours.
Considering these factors, you can make a more informed decision and compare the services with the other best audiobook subscription services. Now let’s understand how to purchase audiobooks on Spotify.
How to Buy Audiobooks on Spotify?
The process of buying an audiobook is quite easy. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you through the process:
- Step 1: Launch Spotify and go to Search. Under the Browse section, select Audiobook.
- Step 2: Scroll down to explore by category or browse the highlighted titles.
- Step 3: To discover more details about an audiobook, click on it. You can check the description, user reviews, price, duration, and narrator.
- Step 4: After that, choose Buy, complete the checkout procedure, and it’s done!
After purchasing an audiobook, open the Spotify app to listen to it. You can search your library for the audiobook and tap on the title of the audiobook.
The padlock icon appears next to any audiobook that you have saved to your library but have not yet purchased; this icon disappears once you have purchased the audiobook on Spotify.
By following these steps, you can easily purchase and enjoy audiobooks on Spotify, making the most of the platform’s extensive 300,000+ titles.
The Spotify premium plan is less expensive than Audible, which costs $14.95 per month, but there are some conditions or policies to be aware of before subscribing to their service.
Moving further, we are going to talk about those policies that you should be aware of.
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Things You Should Know Before Buying Spotify Audiobooks
Spotify may have started providing audiobooks, but it is quite different from Audible. Down below are some things you should be aware of before moving on to make your purchase.
- Spotify premium audiobooks offer only 15 hours of listening. Furthermore, there is no possibility to transfer or share them with someone else.
- If you do not use the current month’s 15 hours, they will not be rolled over, so you will not receive 30 hours for the following month.
- For $9.99 a month premium, users may access 15 hours of audiobook listening through the Audiobooks Access Tier (currently available exclusively in the US).
- If you go with the Spotify premium plan, you can only access around 200,000 books, while the rest have to be bought.
- There are a few titles that are available for free, such as Jesus of Detroit, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mockingjay, and so on.
- Paid audiobooks can be as cheap as a few pennies or as expensive as USD 40.
- Once you’ve used up all the monthly time allocated by your subscription, you can use Spotify audiobook top-ups to get even more listening time. For that, simply go to your account page and under Subscription, navigate to Audiobook Listening Time, and select Top Up.
- Books designated as “Included in Premium” can be found in the Premium catalog.
- If you do not want to bound yourself with 1 hour of listening time and want to complete the entire book, you can purchase individual books as well.
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Pros and Cons of Spotify Audiobooks
Let’s discuss the pros and cons of the Spotify audiobook which will help you to evaluate whether it is suitable for you or not.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|
| Option to top up your daily listening limit. | Limited access region-wise. |
| 70% of titles are bestsellers. | 15 hours a listening limit on premium. |
| Spotify Premium will let you try multiple books. | Before publishers signed agreements with Spotify, writers, and agents were not informed regarding licensing or payment conditions. |
| Apart from audiobooks, you can access music and podcasts in just one app. | Not all audiobooks may be available on Spotify, especially newly released or niche titles, limiting the selection compared to dedicated audiobook platforms. |
By weighing the pros and cons, you can determine if Spotify audiobooks are best suited to your listening needs.
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Conclusion
Finally, we have wrapped up with everything you should know about Spotify audiobooks. As previously stated, Spotify Premium users have access to 15 hours of content, but there are some free titles available to try out.
Whether it is better than Audible or not depends on the individual. However, based on our experience, we would advise you to stick with Audible for now because it has a larger selection of titles. Additionally, Spotify audiobooks are currently only available in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
We hope that Spotify will add more audiobooks and improve its offerings over time to serve a large audience.
Read Next: How to Buy Kindle Books on Amazon?: For iPhone, Android, Kindle Devices, and Gifting
FAQs
Ans: If you are looking for better experience and more titles then Audible is the best choice.
Ans: As an author, you should ask your publisher whether they will distribute on Spotify. If you are an independent writer, you can list your book on Findaway.
Ans: Yes, there are almost 70 free audiobooks available on Spotify and you can also listen to the 1st chapter of several audiobooks for free.
Ans: In such cases, audiobooks may be unavailable in your area, and you may be unable to listen to them via Spotify. Spotify Audiobooks are currently only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
Ans: Indeed! On a phone, choose Privacy & Settings, navigate to Account, click on your plan’s name, and finally select Track your topped-up and included hours.
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