Spotify’s music streaming service is trialling its first audiobook, appropriately enough Chris Anderson’s much hyped ‘Free: the future of a radical price’. This is available to users in the UK only.
Spotify remain coy over whether this will become a business for them, but hint that a successful trial may lead to further additions to the catalogue: “This is the first audiobook we’ve ever included in our catalogue. We’re going to trial it, see what people think and who knows, maybe this is the start of something new for us…”
While Chris Anderson’s Free is by its subject matter an obvious candidate for ad-supported streaming, it will be interesting to see whether other publishers follow his lead. It does open up the question of whether Spotify will expand into other media, extending to podcasts or even video.
Josh - Free Audio Books
Wow! This is pretty big news. Spotify has had good success with music so I wonder if they can really rouse the audiobook industry. I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears on this one for sure.