1y ago

Spotify Premium Will Include Instant Access to 150,000+ Audiobooks (UK/AUS tomorrow, US to follow)

newsroom.spotify.com Spotify Premium Will Include Instant Access to 150,000+ Audiobooks — Spotify

Today we’re starting an entirely new chapter for our audiobooks offering by making more than 150,000 audiobooks available as part of Spotify Premium subscriptions.

cross-posted from !android@lemdro.id

Spotify @lemm.ee

Nemeski @lemm.ee

1y ago

Spotify Premium Will Include Instant Access to 150,000+ Audiobooks

newsroom.spotify.com /2023-10-03/audiobooks-included-in-spotify-premium/

1 0

Android @lemdro.id

hydroGEN @lemdro.id

1y ago

Spotify Premium Will Include Instant Access to 150,000+ Audiobooks (UK/AUS tomorrow, US to follow)

newsroom.spotify.com /2023-10-03/audiobooks-included-in-spotify-premium/

273 72

Audiobooks @literature.cafe

gabe [he/him] @literature.cafe

1y ago

Spotify Premium Will Include Instant Access to 150,000+ Audiobooks — Spotify

newsroom.spotify.com /2023-10-03/audiobooks-included-in-spotify-premium/

22 12

34 comments

15 hours/month is... pretty awful. An avid reader (or listener, in this case) will chew through that in no time at all. Another thing that concerns me is payouts. Spotify is notorious for having atrocious payouts to creators. I wonder how this carries over to their audiobook offerings.
- Yeah when I'm driving a lot for work I could burn through that in 2 days....and not even be able to finish out the second day before I have to change to something else 😂
  Another reason to make me glad I setup audiobookshelf.
- Yep, just looking through my collection of audiobooks, and most are about 10 hours long.
  
  8-12 are my lighter reads. Some of my favorites are 25-30.
  I do do double speed, so I wonder if that ticks twice as fast on there. But 15 hours a month is pretty bad.
  Edit: I just got an email from audible. I've listened to 20900 minutes (348 hours) in 9 months (38.5/month) on there this year, and I've used Scribd and Libby way more. Obviously I'm not typical, and supporting me isn't reasonable. But since they sent that the same day I made this post I thought I'd add it.
- It's a free trial. I don't know why everyone's so shocked, they're essentially giving you one or two free books in the hope that you'll be hooked and want to pay for more!
  
  Technically not free if you have to have a paid sub in order to access them. In that case it's a paid trial with the opportunity to pay even more. Which sounds even worse for Spotify.

For anyone interested in this news, don't forget to check out your local library. If you're in the US there's a good chance that your library card will also give you access to online audiobooks for free!
- ^ The Libby app works great for audiobooks, too!
  
  My library also supports Hoopla, which is a limited number of borrows per month, with instant availability. The catalogue is probably lesser, but it's different so adds options.
- If your library has hoopla you can get ebooks, music, tv shows, movies, comics, and magazines too. Unfortunately doesn’t work with ereaders for the ebooks.
  
  Libby only supports kindle.
  Both do support Android, though. There are Android ereaders available, and while they're mostly Chinese companies I don't personally trust much, low powered for tablets, and old Android with minimal support in terms of upgrades, I personally think the trade off is worth it compared to how limited your choices on proprietary readers are. I wouldn't put confidential documents on them, but I also probably wouldn't trust Amazon with that either.
  
  Hoopla is the greatest

Sounded great at first, but 15 monthly hours is pretty terrible TBH. Not even an hour a day?
- And if you listen at 1.5x speed, does that just burn your 15h faster or can you fit in more time?
  It's an interesting idea, but I think the only way I'd use it is a "try before you buy" and go out to Libro to make the purchase. At least that's the only way I could realistically see using 15h/month.
- That's half an hour a day. Most people are not going to rip through that. Sure you and I would, but most people that's probably adequate.
- It's what. A book, maybe book and a half per month? Like cool that it's an option but it's not really something makes a difference for me.

They cap the time you can listen to something on a paid subscription? Lmao, their podcasts already suck and are annoying to navigate, and tend to get mixed between music in the UI. Can I pay money to just have a music service?
Also, ebooks and audio books are digital, so any caps (like data caps) are entirely arbitrary.
- They don't own the books. Even as a dominant market force in audiobooks, the best Amazon can do is one book credit a month and a small mediocre library of content they do actually own.
  Spotify doesn't have the capability to get licensing that allows for unlimited access.
  
  Seriously, people need to stop complaining about absolutely everything. It’s so tiring. This is something no one was paying for yesterday. Audible is what? $15 a month for one book?

Oh look, a paid subscription post! I shall take a detour from these salty black waters! 🏴‍☠️
- pirates are the pushy vegans of the internet
  
  As a vegan, and a pirate, I approve this message.

This is fantastic news! 😁

Europe?

34 comments