Once upon a time, there was a music application that conquered the audio world. After launching the concept in English in 2021, Spotify is presenting its audiobook service this Monday in France, as well as in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
For this launch, users of the service in these countries will have access to 15,000 references, in French, Dutch, Flemish, Spotify indicates. Premium subscribers to the application benefit from twelve hours of listening, and can extend this credit in increments of ten hours for ten euros. Free users will purchase audiobooks individually.
A promising market
“Spotify’s scale has the potential to significantly increase the size of the industry [du livre audio] in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, claims the platform in a press release. All while paving the way for future innovations in the audiobook format thanks to discovery and editorial tools. […] With more than 246 million subscribers worldwide, and more than 626 million monthly users, 28% of whom are in Europe, the impact of this new feature is all the more promising. »
Enough to open the sector to competition? According to l’agence LibrinovaAudible, launched in France in 2005 and owned by Amazon, held two thirds of the audiobook market in France. The public is in any case more and more demanding: according to a study by the national book center of 2023one in three people has already listened to an audiobook.
