Apps & Consumer
Spotify expands into physical book sales
Spotify is expanding into physical book sales in the U.S. and U.K. while introducing new features like Page Match to bridge digital and physical reading experiences.
On Thursday, Spotify announced a significant expansion of its audiobook business to include physical book sales. Under the new program, users located in the U.S. and the U.K. will soon be able to purchase physical books directly through the Spotify application. To manage the physical sales, the streaming company has partnered with Bookshop.org, which is an online marketplace that supports independent bookstores. When users purchase physical books through the app, the transactions are completed via Bookshop.org, and Spotify earns an affiliate fee on each sale. This partnership allows Spotify to offer physical copies of books while supporting independent bookstores.
To connect the physical and digital reading experiences, Spotify is introducing a feature called Page Match. The tool, which was initially spotted by the tech publication Android Authority, uses computer vision to sync physical pages to audio, allowing users to scan physical book pages to jump directly to the corresponding section in the audiobook. Page Match is scheduled to roll out to all audiobook users by late February, and is currently available for most English-language titles. In addition to Page Match, Spotify is expanding its Audiobook Recaps feature—which provides summaries of audiobook sections—to Android devices in the spring.
The move into physical bookselling positions Spotify as a competitor to major booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Spotify is building on a catalog that now contains more than 500,000 titles. The company has seen substantial traction among its user base, with more than half of its 281 million total premium subscribers having engaged with an audiobook. This expansion follows a year of notable growth for the platform’s audiobook segment:
- The number of users listening to audiobooks rose 36% over the past year.
- Total listening hours for audiobooks increased by 37% over the past year.
The announcement comes shortly before Spotify is expected to release its fourth-quarter earnings results on February 10.
Why it matters
Spotify’s move to sell physical books positions it as a direct competitor to major retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, aiming to capture the full book-buying journey. By bridging physical print and digital audio, the streaming platform seeks to establish itself as a unified destination for readers.