After becoming the music world's largest streaming service and a major player in the podcast market, Spotify will take on Storytel, Bookbeat and other audiobook players in Sweden.
It took a while, but now we are ready, says Alex Nordström, who together with Gustav Söderström will take over as CEO of Spotify at the turn of the year.
Spotify added audiobooks to the streaming service in the US, Australia and the UK in 2023 and is now also launching in the Nordic countries – except Norway.
"The US and UK are our biggest markets so it was natural to start there. But we've been really keen to launch here, so we're really excited to do it," Duncan Bruce, head of licensing and partnerships at Spotify, says with a smile.
300,000 books
Spotify will initially have 300,000 books in its library, 60,000 of which are in the Nordic languages. The service does not want to reveal exactly how many are in Swedish, but the major Swedish publishers Norstedts and Bonniers have made arrangements with Spotify and will be included.
Twelve hours of listening time will be included in Spotify's current premium subscription. In addition, it is possible to purchase more listening time.
Spotify has the advantage of having a large customer base that already subscribes to listen to music and podcasts. This has led many experts to believe that rivals Storytel, Bookbeat and Nextory may find it difficult to survive when the large streaming service also enters the book market.
It's not about competing, it's about adding. In the US and UK, we've been able to reach younger listeners who may have never listened to audiobooks or stopped reading, says Duncan Bruce.
User data
He says that the reactions from publishers in Sweden have been “very positive”.
They have seen our success in other markets. So they find it exciting to be able to reach a new audience and achieve greater sales than they have been able to so far.
Audiobooks will be given the same amount of space as music and podcasts on the service, according to Duncan Bruce. Spotify can also use listeners' usage data from those areas to provide book recommendations, Duncan Bruce explains.
That's a strength. Say someone listens to a podcast about football or gardening. Then we know that the person has that interest and can recommend books based on what the person usually listens to.
Mikael Forsell/TT
Facts: Prices of the major audiobook services
TT
Storytel.
Price: Premium, 100 hours/month, SEK 169. Unlimited, SEK 229.
1.8 million titles globally, according to their own information. Also offers podcasts.
Bookbeat.
Price: Basic, 20 hours/month, SEK 99. Standard, 50 hours/month, SEK 149. Premium, 150 hours/month, SEK 199.
Over a million titles, according to their own information.
Nextory.
Price: Basic, 30 hours/month, SEK 139. Unlimited, SEK 199.
Hundreds of thousands of titles, according to their own information.
Spotify.
Price: Premium, 12 hours/month, SEK 129. 22 hours/month, SEK 208. 32 hours/month, SEK 228.
300,000 titles from the start, according to their own information. The Premium subscription also includes all music and podcasts on Spotify.
