As Spotify rapidly evolves to become the home for all things audio, the company announced Tuesday that it is bringing narrated long-form magazine articles to the app. These articles will be available to Premium subscribers as part of their 15 hours of audiobook listening time per month. Free users can also purchase individual articles for $1.99.
Starting today, the streaming service will stream more than 650 long-form magazine articles (available in English only) from a collection that includes publications such as Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair, and Pitchfork. Spotify says the articles are produced in-house by the company’s audiobooks team and are meant to complement Spotify’s existing audio services, such as podcasts.
Spotify told TechCrunch that narrated articles will use a combination of human and digital voice narration, and the parts of articles that use digital voice narration will be clearly labeled for users.
In addition to being another way to provide monetizable audio to its apps, Spotify believes the addition of articles could encourage users to try other types of listening other than music, and ultimately lead to other forms of extended listening, such as more profitable audiobooks.
“By incorporating short-form content into your mix, you meet your audience where they are to build healthy listening habits and ultimately increase interest in your books over time,” said Colleen Prendergast, Licensing Lead for Spotify Audiobooks, in a blog post about the launch.
Currently, Spotify offers paid subscribers listening time for audiobooks, as well as “top-up” time if you run out of listening time. There’s also a $9.99/month Audiobook Access plan for free Spotify music listeners, and an $11.99/month Audiobooks+ plan that doubles your listening time.
This addition follows a slew of news from the streamer in recent weeks. With this, the company has taken a big leap forward in the world of AI audio with new features such as AI-generated podcasts similar to those you can create with research apps like Google’s NotebookLM, AI-powered audiobook creation for authors, support for AI covers and remixes, and other non-AI features like fitness content.
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