Spotify already brings together listeners’ favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks in one place. Now, we’re trialing a new format that expands the content available on our platform: narrated Articles.
Starting today, over 650 long-form magazine articles will be available in English language to users where audiobooks are available. Produced by our in-house team, Spotify Audiobooks, the curated collection includes stories from publications including Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, WIRED, Vanity Fair, and Pitchfork.
Each narrated Article is under two hours long and available within Premium users’ monthly audiobooks allowance, alongside our existing audiobook library. Free users can purchase individual articles for $1.99 each.
“With Articles, we’re introducing long-form journalism in audio as a natural extension of the music, podcasts, and audiobooks people already come to Spotify for, focused on topics we know they love,” said Colleen Prendergast, Licensing Lead at Spotify Audiobooks. “By bringing shorter form content into the mix, we’re meeting audiences where they are to help build healthy listening habits, ultimately growing engagement with books over time.”
As we have seen with bringing audiences over from podcasts, Articles will allow people to trial shorter, less intimidating listens, opening the gateway to explore longer-form listening like books.
Articles on Spotify give listeners in supported markets another way to go deeper on the artists, stories, and topics they care about. We see Articles as a natural extension of the audio people already come to Spotify for. And through Spotify’s discovery and personalization features, media publishers and magazine partners can bring stories directly to listeners who are most likely to be excited about their content.
Since launching audiobooks just over two years ago, we have expanded into 22 markets, reached tens of millions new readers, grown listening hours 60% year over year, and continued to invest in an underserved industry with innovative new features such as Page Match, Recaps, and Follow Along.
It’s all part of our ongoing effort to reimagine the reading experience so it fits more seamlessly into daily life—no matter what, or how, you choose to read.
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