Spotify is expanding access to audiobooks to more US subscribers. On Tuesday, the company announced the launch of its $11.99 per month audiobook + plan on the market. This allows family or duoplan subscribers or their household members to add 15 hours of audiobook listening in addition to the master plan.
Spotify launched an audiobook service in the US in 2022, but duo and family planning household members have long been ruled out.
The offering will make audiobooks available to household members for the first time in the US market.
Through Spotify Premium, subscribers already have access to 15 hours of audiobook listening per month, and can purchase additional time to purchase additional time if necessary. However, AudioBooks+ Plan offers subscribers the option to add 15 hours of additional access per month, in addition to existing monthly allocations for the Premium Plan,
While that may be overloaded for non-greedy audiobook listeners, the US Audiobook+ deployment means that other members of non-cardholder subscription plans will also be able to access Spotify's audiobook catalog for the first time. This is possible through an add-on called “Audiobook for Plan Members+.”
With the launch, the US has joined many other markets with access to Audiobook+, including Ireland, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
Image credit: Spotify
Announcement of the expansion of the plan to the US comes just after a tough quarter for the streaming giant, who missed expectations and reported weak guidance. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek was noted as the advertising business. (The media outlet reported earlier that the Spotify ad chief had just set out for Doordash.)
Despite the losses, one of the bright spots for the company this quarter was user growth. Active users increased by 11% to 696 million, while paid subscribers increased by 12% in the second quarter to 276 million. The goal of the new Audiobook+ Plan is to extract more money from existing customers.
In December, publisher Harpercollins messed around with a solution to the problem of household members not being able to access audiobooks. HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said Spotify is working to adjust “technical issues” with family planning that restricts only to family plans credit card holders.
Last month, Spotify went well with its promise when it first expanded audiobook access to plan members with the launch of Audibooks+ in several non-US markets.
Although Spotify doesn't share the number of things that premium subscribers stream audiobooks in addition to music and podcasts, it's important to note that audiobook listening times have increased by more than 35% year-on-year in the US, UK and Australia. In particular, this was before these add-on plans became available.
New subscription news follows Spotify's announcement on Monday, with subscription prices increasing from 10,99 euros to 11,99 euros across markets in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
Spotify says it will experiment with other options for future book fans, including direct sales.