Will Spotify's audiobook streaming be good for authors?

The Business of Content

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It’s been nearly five years since Spotify announced it would diversify its audio offerings beyond music streaming, and while it spent most of that time building its podcast capabilities, it made no secret that it eventually wanted to get into audiobooks.

Then in 2022 it made its first move into the industry by acquiring an audiobooks distributor called Findaway. Later that year, it launched the ability to purchase audiobooks through spotify. And then finally in late 2023 it rolled out audiobook streaming as part of its paid subscription.

There’s been one group that’s watched these developments closely: audiobook authors. They’re understandably nervous about how Spotify’s bundled offering will affect their own income, and many are deeply skeptical of the company’s intentions.

So will Spotify’s audiobook streaming be good for authors? That’s a question I put to Jane Friedman, the writer behind the publishing industry newsletter The Hot Sheet. She walked me through the current landscape of digital audiobook sales and explained how Spotify’s revenue sharing arrangement works.