Audio are books now available on Spotify in France

“Spotify isn’t just for breakup playlists and true crime podcasts anymore – it’s now your portable library!” You may not have noticed, but the app that follows us through highs, lows, and bus rides has just made a splash by launching audiobooks in France and the Benelux on October 14. With no fewer than 15,000 titles in French and just as many in Dutch, plus a total of 200,000 works, primarily in English, it’s a wake-up call for Audible, Storytel, and Nextory. Spotify is going multi-purpose, expanding its empire beyond Drake playlists and cooking podcasts.

For its “premium” subscribers, Spotify offers a well-rounded menu: in addition to music and podcasts, there are now 12 hours of audiobooks included each month for the same 11.12 € fee. Beyond that, users can simply buy additional hours. The concept? Let subscribers sample literary classics and new releases without ever leaving the app. It’s a way to feel like a literary scholar between Bad Bunny tracks, or for the optimists, to imagine the next dinner party talk revolving around Balzac. Collaborating with major French publishers like Hachette (via Audiolib), Editis (Lizzie), and Madrigall, Spotify also hopes to strengthen visibility for French literature. 

Éric Marbeau, digital distribution director at Madrigall, welcomes this new approach: by offering hours included in subscriptions, Spotify allows users to explore catalogs in depth, creating an opportunity to showcase publishing assets, he told the press. Meanwhile, David Kaefer, Spotify's audiobooks division director, notes that the French market is still expanding, with untapped potential. This initiative might signal a new era of listening diversification. Essentially, Spotify could become the app that turns each commute into a crash course in literature. It’s the promise of a new era: one where you’re a Goncourt Prize expert… all while listening to your favorite playlist in the background.