Spotify has launched two new Audiobooks Plus add-on subscriptions that enable Premium customers to double their audiobook listening restrict to 30 hours. They’re out there to particular person Premium subscribers and customers who handle Household and Duo plans. Different customers on Premium accounts can now additionally request 15 hours of audiobook entry from their plan supervisor. Nevertheless, the brand new plans are nonetheless too brief for individuals who want to hearken to longer books.
The 30-hour restrict gained’t get you thru titles like George R. R. Martin’s A Recreation of Thrones or Brandon Sanderson’s The Method of Kings, for instance. You may pay attention to 2 or three smaller novels as an alternative, however if you wish to re-listen to them sooner or later, you’ll should sacrifice these hours once more. And you’ll neglect about shopping for books to get round these points — any audiobook included in Premium isn’t out there for Premium subscribers to buy.
I scoured by Spotify’s audiobook listings to search out something I might purchase as a Premium subscriber and got here up with nothing. By comparability, Audible’s $14.95 premium plan provides customers a complete free e-book every month that they’ll preserve without end, and ceaselessly has titles on sale for a lot lower than the value of Spotify’s time-based top-ups. The payouts that Spotify provides to authors are reportedly better than what Audible pays, nevertheless it sucks that Spotify makes it so tough to assist authors straight with purchases.
These add-ons are at the moment solely out there for Spotify Premium customers within the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Netherlands, following preliminary checks in Eire and Canada. Pricing will range by area. Within the UK, each Audiobook add-ons are priced at £8.99 (about $12, which might double the $11.99 particular person Premium plan pricing within the US).
Spotify will ultimately introduce related plans to the US, according to TechCrunch, although customers in that area have already got the choice to buy 10-hour audiobook top-ups for $12.99. The principle perk right here is comfort — these rolling add-on subscriptions will routinely enable Premium customers to hearken to 30 hours of audiobooks every month with no need to purchase top-ups. A Spotify spokesperson wasn’t instantly out there to touch upon what number of customers at the moment hearken to over 15 hours of audiobooks.
The 15 hours supplied to Premium subscribers is a “good to have” for those who additionally stream music on the platform, particularly for those who solely hearken to a handful of shorter e-book titles each month. Spotify additionally has a $9.99 audiobook-only Premium plan that gives 15 hours of listening with no music perks for those who want to hearken to your tunes elsewhere.