I would not be surprised later this year to see Spotify partnering with the India-based AI narration and translation platforms to open up the India market for Spotify Premium audiobooks.
Spotify is significantly expanding its investment in audiobooks, with a particular focus on Europe and its homeland, Sweden
Recent Developments
According to a report by Affärsvärlden, Spotify, which late last year expanded its audiobook offering to four European countries (https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-10-14/audiobooks-launch-france-belgium-netherlands-luxembourg/), has placed an advertisement for a specialist to negotiate with European publishers.
Competitive Landscape
Spotify’s increased focus on audiobooks will intensify competition with established audiobook companies in its homeland and across Europe, where Audible competes with Sweden-based Storytel, BookBeat and Nextory.
The latest news comes hard on the heels of the push on AI-assisted audiobooks with Spotify’s partnership with AI software firm ElevenLabs.
Between the two initiatives we should seen Spotify rapidly expand its market presence not just in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, but shortly in Sweden and across Europe.
And given Audible and Storytel are already in India, and given Spotify’s willingness to embrace of AI, I would not be surprised later this year to see Spotify partnering with the India-based AI narration and translation platforms to open up the India market for Spotify Premium audiobooks.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.
