Spotify offered music and podcasts to its subscribers. Next: Audiobooks.
Four years ago, Spotify's business was stagnating. Apple had overtaken it as the highest paying music service in the United States, losses were mounting and customer growth was slowing.
Daniel Ek, the director general of the company, decided that Spotify needed to move from a music service to an everything store for audio. The first missing piece was podcasts, a business that helped drive advertising sales.
Mr. Ek is now turning its attention to another rapidly growing medium: audiobooks.
On Tuesday, Spotify announced that it would begin offering 15 hours of audiobooks each month in as part of its streaming service for premium subscribers in Britain and Australia. This winter, it will expand its offering to subscribers in the United States.
Spotify's expansion into books has the potential to shake up the retail landscape audiobook retail, a growing market. publishing segment that has long been dominated by Amazon-owned audio retailer Audible.
In Mr. Ek's eyes, Audible's dominance in the audiobooks domain recalls Apple's past control over music and podcasts. Spotify built its business by disrupting the music industry with its monthly subscription service and podcasts. Mr. Ek said in an interview that he saw the potential to do the same with audiobooks.
“As with music, one of the big problems is: how to reduce friction? Mr. Ek spoke about audiobooks. "How can we make it easy for consumers to discover amazing new audiobooks?"
Daniel Spotify CEO Ek has set his sights on audiobooks. Credit...Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images
Four years ago, Spotify's business was stagnating. Apple had overtaken it as the highest paying music service in the United States, losses were mounting and customer growth was slowing.
Daniel Ek, the director general of the company, decided that Spotify needed to move from a music service to an everything store for audio. The first missing piece was podcasts, a business that helped drive advertising sales.
Mr. Ek is now turning its attention to another rapidly growing medium: audiobooks.
On Tuesday, Spotify announced that it would begin offering 15 hours of audiobooks each month in as part of its streaming service for premium subscribers in Britain and Australia. This winter, it will expand its offering to subscribers in the United States.
Spotify's expansion into books has the potential to shake up the retail landscape audiobook retail, a growing market. publishing segment that has long been dominated by Amazon-owned audio retailer Audible.
In Mr. Ek's eyes, Audible's dominance in the audiobooks domain recalls Apple's past control over music and podcasts. Spotify built its business by disrupting the music industry with its monthly subscription service and podcasts. Mr. Ek said in an interview that he saw the potential to do the same with audiobooks.
“As with music, one of the big problems is: how to reduce friction? Mr. Ek spoke about audiobooks. "How can we make it easy for consumers to discover amazing new audiobooks?"
Daniel Spotify CEO Ek has set his sights on audiobooks. Credit...Ilya S. Savenok/Getty ImagesWhat's Your Reaction?
