Spotify rivals Amazon’s Audible launches audiobook service for U.S. users

Spotify Technology SA has launched an audiobook service in the United States, competing with Amazon.com Inc’s Audible. Spotify customers in the nation will have access to nearly 300,000 audiobook titles, according to a blog post published on Tuesday by the Swedish company.

Users will be able to explore the collection on the Spotify app and purchase through the website, the same as how a Spotify membership is purchased. According to media consultant Omdia, the audiobook industry was valued at $4.8 billion in 2021 and was predicted to increase at a 14% compound annual growth rate to $9.3 billion by 2026.

Spotify has pursued an ambitious growth strategy in order to augment its revenue from music streaming with other revenue-generating formats such as podcasts, on which it has spent more than $1 billion to add prominent personalities such as Joe Rogan to its roster.