Spotify expands audiobooks to over 180 markets

Spotify announced on Wednesday that it is expanding audiobook access to more than 180 markets worldwide, including regions across Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The rollout begins today and will continue over the coming months. Audiobooks had previously been available mainly in English-speaking markets such as the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, plus Germany. With the broader rollout, more than 750 million users will gain access to audiobooks, letting Spotify compete more directly with both music-streaming rivals and dedicated audiobook apps like Audible.

For the newly added markets, Spotify says it has assembled a catalog of more than 350,000 titles spanning more than 120 languages. In Spain, one of the new markets, users will have access to more than 45,000 titles in Spanish. Spotify is working with more than 300 publishers worldwide, including Planeta and Mondadori, to keep expanding the number of titles available in different markets.

Access varies by plan. Premium subscribers in eligible countries — including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, Norway, and Peru — get 12 hours of audiobook listening a month. In any market, users can instead buy a standalone Audiobook+ subscription for a 15-hour monthly allowance, or purchase individual titles outright. Spotify is also adding an Audiobook+ add-on to student plans in select regions in November. Since Audiobook+ launched last year, it has gained more than 1 million subscribers and generated more than 100 million in annual recurring revenue for the platform.

The expansion follows a string of audiobook features Spotify has shipped this year. In February, the company launched “Page Match,” which lets a user scan a page of a physical book to jump to the matching point in the audiobook; Spotify says 1 million people now use the feature monthly. It also introduced Audiobook Charts to help users discover popular titles, launched an AI-powered tool — built on ElevenLabs models — that lets authors turn their books into audiobooks, and began testing physical book sales through its audiobook platform in markets including the U.S. and U.K. Spotify said that over the past year, monthly audiobook listeners grew 40% and listening hours rose 30%.

Why it matters

Extending audiobooks past its original English-speaking markets and into more than 180 markets gives Spotify a direct line into Audible’s core business, while adding a third content pillar — alongside music and podcasts — to keep subscribers engaged and paying. Folding Premium audiobook hours into the base subscription in markets like Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Peru makes the format part of what those subscribers already pay for, not just an upsell.