Spotify increases access to its audiobooks to more US subscribers. The company on Tuesday announced the launch of its $ 11.99 per month Audiobooks+ plan in the market, which allows subscribers or their households by family or duo -plan to add 15 hours of audio book listening during the month on the base plan.
Although Spotify launched Its audiobooks service in the United States back in 2022, domestic members on duo and family plans have long been abandoned.
The offer provides audio books to home members for the first time in the US market.
By Spotify Premium, subscribers already have access to 15 hours of audio book listening a month and can buy more hours to finish that, as needed. However, the Audiobooks+ plan gives subscribers the option to add repeat access to 15 more hours monthly, over the existing monthly monthly of the prize.
Although this may be excessive for some, but the more voracious audiobook listeners, the US Rolling of Audio Books+ also means that other members in a subscription plan other than the card owner can now also access Spotify’s audiobooks for the first time. This makes it possible by the add -on called “audiobooks+ for planning members.”
With the launch, the United States joins a handful of other markets with access to audiobooks+, including Ireland, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
The announcement of the expansion of the plan to the United States comes shortly after A hard quarter For the streaming giant, where it missed expectations and reported weak leadership. Daniel Ek, General Director of Spotify, pointed to a weaker advertising business as the cause. (Spotify’s advertising chief just left for Doordash, media reported before revenue.)
Despite the loss, one bright spot for the company in the fourth was its user growth. Active users grew 11% to 696 million, and paid subscribers grew 12% to 276 million in the second quarter. The goal with the new audiobooks plan is to extract more money from those existing customers.
In December, publisher HarperCollins moved a solution for the problem with the inability of households to access audio books. Brian Murray, Director General of HarperCollins, said at the time that Spotify was working to adjust a “technical problem” with family plans that limited audiobook streaming only to the credit card owner of the family plan.
Last month, Spotify was doing good on that promise when it Expanded Audio book access to planning members for the first time with the launch of AudiBooks+ in several non-US markets.
Spotify does not share how many of its award subscribers flow audiobooks in addition to music or podcasts, but note that audiobooks listening hours are over 35% per year after year in the United States, Britain and Australia. Notably, this is before these additional plans have become available.
News on the new subscription follows Spotify’s announcement on Monday that its subscription prices are growing from € 10.99 to € 11.99 through markets in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific region.
