Tag: bloomsbury

Spotify Releases 51 Audiobooks From Bloomsbury’s Popular 33 ⅓ Series

May 13, 2025

Spotify aims to bring compelling audiobooks to as many consumers as possible, and we’re eager to give fans even more options as they discover their next great listens. For our latest chapter, Spotify Audiobooks—our in-house audiobook publishing imprint—is releasing 51 audiobooks from Bloomsbury’s 33 ⅓ series, a collection of short books about popular music.

The 33 ⅓ series has been devoured by fans, musicians, and scholars alike since launching in 2003. It dives deep into legendary artists, albums, and genres, counting Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love, The Rolling Stones’ Some Girls, Madvillain’s Madvillainy, and Britney Spears’s Blackout among its entries. Music lovers on Spotify will also recognize 33 ⅓, as we teamed up with Bloomsbury in 2021 for the 33 ⅓ Podcast, which was hosted by renowned record producer and DJ Prince Paul.

“Following on from the success of Spotify’s 33 ⅓ Podcast, audiobooks are a natural next step for the books in the series,” said Leah Babb-Rosenfeld, Editorial Director and 33 ⅓ editor for Bloomsbury. “The format—including the newest enhancement of the ‘follow along’ feature and exclusive commentary from Spotify’s music editors—will be creative, exciting, and the first of its kind, much like the series itself. With its acclaimed status among music fans and now with over 200 titles, I’ve seen the series grow and transform over the years that I’ve worked on it, not just in size, but in scope, diversity, and audience. We value opportunities to continue to reach new music-loving readers.”

Continuing to enhance Spotify’s audiobooks experience

In addition to these new titles, several from the series—including Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace—will connect music to the audiobooks experience for the first time with Follow-Along. Follow-Along is an immersive experience we’ve been testing that allows users to see additional media, including illustrations, photos, graphics, and music, as they listen to an audiobook. When a song or album is mentioned in an audiobook from the series, the song link or album will appear in the Now Playing View window so listeners can easily save to their library.

These materials are also available in the “extras” section and allow users to easily find and listen to that content later. Additionally, there will be videos from Spotify’s music editors that highlight the significance of the album featured in a specific book. Users can access these companion editorial videos from the “Try This Book” audiobook page.

“This has been a dream project and a prime example of how Spotify is evolving the audiobook space,” said Henna Silvennoinen, Manager of Audiobooks Licensing for Spotify. “It is an honor to combine forces with Bloomsbury, a heavyweight in the publishing industry, to introduce this iconic, decades-long book series to a whole new audience of listeners on Spotify.”

This launch marks the beginning of cross-functional collaboration between Spotify’s music and audiobooks teams, further demonstrating how Spotify is the best place for fans to connect on an even deeper level to the music and artists that they love.

Explore Bloomsbury’s 33 ⅓ series on Spotify’s Audiobooks Hub.

Spotify Inks a New Partnership With Bloomsbury To Offer A Greater Assortment of Audiobooks

November 22, 2024

Our library continues to grow. In 2022, we announced the addition of audiobooks to Spotify, and since then we’ve worked with publishers around the world to deliver more titles to our digital shelves. Today marks another exciting chapter for audiobook lovers thanks to a new partnership with Bloomsbury, one of the largest publishers in the U.K.

“As we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Audiobooks in Premium, there’s no better way to build on our momentum than with the addition of Bloomsbury’s beloved library,” said Duncan Bruce, Director of Audiobook Partnerships and Licensing at Spotify. “This partnership allows us to expand our author lineup and give listeners an even wider array of titles to enjoy, taking us another step forward in our goal of reimagining the audiobook experience.”

Spotify users will have access to more than 1,000 new titles from Bloomsbury’s award-winning catalog. It includes an array of stellar titles from acclaimed authors including Sarah J. Maas, William Dalrymple, Alan Moore, Madeline Miller, Dan Jones, Samantha Shannon, and Ann Patchett, all paired with narrations from top-tier talent such as Meryl Streep, Emilia Clarke, Adjoa Andoh, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Listeners can lose themselves in epic, sweeping fantasies for adults, like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, award winners such as Cuddy by Benjamin Myers (which won the Goldsmith’s prize in 2023), and the IPG Audiobook of the Year, Ghosts, read by the cast of the show. Listeners will also find thrilling adventures for kids, such as Katherine Rundell‘s Children’s Book of the Year, Impossible Creatures, read by Sam West. For lovers of nonfiction, Bloomsbury has works written and read by many distinguished historians, including Peter Frankopan, William Dalrymple, Dan Jones, and the recent number-one bestselling title, Want, Submitted by Anonymous, Collected by Gillian Anderson.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Spotify to bring our catalog of audiobooks to even more listeners. We are passionate about bringing the creative talents of our authors and narrators to as many listeners as possible, through our mission to inform, educate, entertain, and inspire readers of all ages and backgrounds. We feel confident that this partnership will help to introduce a whole new generation of listeners to audiobooks for years to come,” said Sam Halstead, Director of Audio at Bloomsbury.

The addition of this catalog continues our commitment to introducing the audiobook format to new listeners while also expanding opportunities and creating an additional revenue stream for the industry. Since launching audiobooks, Spotify has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to publishers on an annualized basis. Spotify’s aim is to be the best place for authors and publishers to get their books heard, and to bring great audio stories to as many people as possible. With a global audience of more than 615 million listeners, Spotify provides a new platform for authors and rights holders to share their content. 

There’s no experience quite like getting lost in an audiobook, and we’re thrilled to continue bringing more options and varieties to Spotify. Head to Spotify to discover your next great “read.”