There is a subscription to most digital services nowadays. While the mainstream streaming services mostly offer access to music, podcasts, films, and shows, Spotify is now offering an option that lets listeners get an audiobook-only experience.
Spotify's Audiobook Subscription
The app is mostly known for the music it offers and is already growing to be the go-to service for podcasts as well. It appears that the company is expanding its horizons by offering audiobooks as well and even creating a different subscription just for it.
Called the Audiobooks Access Tier, there are various plans that users can choose from. It will be a $9.99 monthly plan, which offers 15 hours of listening, as well as access to the service's audiobook catalog of over 200,000 titles. The plan is currently only available in the US.
It seems a little off that the app offers a $10 subscription option for audiobooks only, especially since the Premium service that costs $11 also has the same access to the audiobook catalog and 15 hours of listening time.
In a way, it comes as a competitor for Audible, as pointed out by Engadget, which costs $15 per month for one audiobook credit. With Spotify being $5 less and the freedom to use up the allotted hours to search through its catalog, it could be the preferable choice.
The company claims that ever since audiobooks were offered to Premium subscribers back in November 2023, it saw a 45% increase in searches for audiobook materials when it came to free users, which could be the reason why the audiobook subscription was created.
Users will also have the option to top up their hours once they have run out. For $12.99, they can add 10 more hours before their next billing cycle, and they can purchase as many top-ups as they want, all of which are valid for 12 months.
The user must be subscribed to Spotify's services such as Premium Individual, Premium Family, Premium Duo, and the Audiobooks Access plan. The two multi-user plans will only allow the plan manager to purchase additional hours, according to Spotify's support page.
The extra hours will only be used once the initially paid-for time has already run out. Once the next monthly cycle starts, Spotify will begin deducting audiobook hours from the 15-hour time that the subscription offers.
Your top-up hours will only be used when the monthly listening time has run out. It's important to note that even if you don't use up all your hours in the designated month, the remaining time will not be carried over to the next month.
Purchasing Individual Audiobooks
Spotify listeners have the option to purchase individual audiobooks as well, although this can only be done through the web player for now. Once the title has been paid for, the user can listen to it on the app from any of the compatible devices.
The entire audiobook can even be downloaded for offline listening. These purchases are independent of Spotify Premium plans and can be paid for using PayPal or eligible credit and debit cards.
