Spotify's innovative audiobooks arrive in Pakistan

New subscription service will allow users to listen to over 100,000 English-language titles

KARACHI:

Spotify has introduced audiobooks in Pakistan, allowing users to listen to more than 100,000 English-language titles through a new subscription service as the streaming platform expands beyond music.

Available from November 4, the service, called Audiobooks+, will offer both Free and Premium subscribers 15 hours of audiobook listening per month for Rs489. The subscription will renew monthly, with unused listening hours resetting at the beginning of each billing cycle.

Users who run out of their monthly allowance can purchase an additional 10 hours for Rs579. Alternatively, those interested in specific books can buy individual audiobook titles without signing up for a recurring subscription.

The move gives Pakistani listeners access to Spotify's international audiobook catalogue, covering more than 100,000 titles in English. The company has also introduced a dedicated Audiobooks section within its app, where users can browse, search and discover available books.

The service includes features designed to make listening more convenient. These include automatic bookmarking, which saves a listener's progress, and a sleep timer that allows playback to stop after a selected period.

Another feature, Page Match, enables users to switch between a physical or digital book and its audiobook version, allowing them to continue from where they left off. Audiobooks can also be downloaded for offline listening, while progress is synchronised across supported devices.

Spotify's expansion into Pakistan is part of a wider international rollout announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 7. The company plans to make its audiobook service available in more than 180 markets by the end of 2026, potentially reaching over 780 million people.

"For a lot of people, audiobooks are how they find their way back to reading, on the commute, on a walk, or at the end of a long day," said Owen Smith, Spotify's vice-president of Audiobooks.

Spotify entered the audiobook market three years ago by introducing the format to its Premium offering. The company says monthly audiobook listeners have increased by nearly 40 per cent over the past year, while listening hours have risen by more than 30 per cent. Its Audiobooks+ subscription service has also attracted more than one million subscribers since its launch just over a year ago.

Pakistani users can access the service by updating their Spotify app, opening the Audiobooks section and selecting a title. They can then subscribe to Audiobooks+ or purchase individual books through the platform.

As of December 2022, Spotify is available in most of Europe, as well as Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, with availability in a total of 184 markets. Its users and subscribers are based largely in the United States and Europe, jointly accounting for around 53% of users and 67% of revenue. It has no presence in mainland China, where the market is dominated by QQ Music. The service is available on most devices, including Windows, macOS, and Linux computers, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, smart home devices such as the Amazon Echo and Google Nest lines of products, and digital media players like Roku. As of December 2023, Spotify was the 47th most-visited website in the world with 24.78% of its traffic coming from the United States followed by Brazil with 6.51% according to data provided by Semrush. As of 2022, Spotify is the current sponsor of Spanish football club FC Barcelona, with music artists like Drake, Travis Scott, and Ed Sheeran collaborating with the club by changing their shirts into their artist logo, sometimes used for album promotions.

Unlike physical or download sales, which pay artists a fixed price per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on the number of artist streams as a proportion of total songs streamed. It distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights holders (often record labels), who then pay artists based on individual agreements. While certain musicians laud the service for offering a lawful option to combat piracy and for remunerating artists each time their music is played, others have voiced objections to Spotify's royalty structure and its effect on record sales.

Spotify operates under a freemium business model (basic services are free, while additional features are offered via paid subscriptions). Spotify generates revenue by selling premium streaming subscriptions to users and advertising placements to third parties. Some of the premium options users may choose from include individual, duo, family, and student.

In December 2013, the company launched a new website, "Spotify for Artists", explaining its business model and revenue data. Spotify gets its content from major record labels as well as independent artists and pays copyright holders royalties for streaming music.