Spotify to offer audiobooks in 180 markets and 120 languages — but what about a music-only UI?

• Spotify is expanding audiobooks to over 180 markets and 120 languages
• It's also bringing Audiobooks+ to students in select regions
• A fab update for audiobook lovers, but I'm still gunning for a music-only experience

Spotify has gone from one of the best music streaming services, to one of the most-used platforms for audiobooks — and now it’s taking its literary offerings to the next level.

Exactly three years after Spotify launched audiobooks, the streamer is marking the anniversary by launching an audiobook rollout process including market expansion, new languages, and more. Earlier this week, I attended a press briefing where Spotify unveiled the changes coming to audiobooks, and today (October 7) the company took to the stage at the Frankfurt Book Fair to make the public announcement.

Since Spotify introduced audiobooks, availability has been limited to just 22 markets across the world. By the end of the year, however, Spotify says audiobooks will become available in over 180 markets, meaning that over 750 million users across Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, Norway, Peru, as well as regions in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia will be able to stream and purchase audiobooks right from Spotify — a massive jump to say the least, but it doesn’t stop there.

For upcoming audiobooks, Spotify will offer countdown pages similar to new album releases, allowing subscribers to pre-save an author’s work so that it appears in their Library on the publication day. ‘It’s incredibly effective at building anticipation and driving day-one listening,’ said Duncan Bruce, Director of Audiobook Partnerships and Licensing.

In addition to Spotify’s ambitious audiobook expansion, bookworms in the new regions will have direct access to over 350,000 titles, spanning new languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, and more. This will take Spotify’s audiobook catalog to over 120 languages.

Are Spotify’s monthly audiobook hours not enough for you? Users in the new regions will also have the option to purchase additional listening hours through Spotify’s Audiobooks+ add-on. If you have a Student plan, you’ll be able to take advantage of a discounted Audiobooks+ add-on, which is coming to Ireland, Belgium, Austria, and Finland in November.

(Image credit: Spotify)

Great for bookworms, less so for music fans

Spotify has truly achieved everything it can on the ubiquity front. Not only can you stream music easily through a variety of devices but the service has taken over the world of podcasts and audiobooks alike. As Owen Smith, VP of Audiobooks at Spotify, said during the press briefing; the company’s goal is to “build an experience that is intentional and meaningful”.

At its core, Spotify is a music-listening service — it’s how the platform built a reputation for itself during the crossover into the digital streaming era. It has pushed the boundaries by moving into other areas of audio streaming that users are growing increasingly drawn to, creating an experience that ‘no audiobook-only platform can match’, Smith added during the briefing.

Now, I do enjoy having these options, and I dabble in podcasts every now and then. But while I see how the audiobooks interface benefits keen readers, I’ve never got on board with it, and sometimes I just wish there was a tool that would allow me to disable this, allowing for a music listening-only experience. Unfortunately, Spotify isn’t doing this any time soon.

One of my dream features would be a customization setting that allows me to rid my Home page of all things audiobooks, keeping my in-app experience strictly music-only. I know deep down that other music enthusiasts would appreciate something like this, but it’s not on Spotify’s list — I should know, the platform told me straight-up.

‘We’re always exploring ways to give users the best possible Spotify experience and our focus is on personalization rather than creating separate experiences for each content format,’ a Spotify spokesperson shared with me. ‘Home is designed to understand each listener’s individual tastes, drawing on trillions of daily listening signals across music, podcasts and audiobooks to put the right content in front of the right person at the right time,’ they added.

I know what you're thinking, 'if you don't want audiobooks, just don't use them', which is true, but that's easier said than done — especially when there's audiobooks infiltrating every aspect of the app. They're inescapable.