Spotify is in the middle of a massive campaign aimed at attracting not music listeners, but readers. This week, the streaming service launched audiobook charts for U.S. and U.K. users, ranking titles by top listens overall and top listens by genre.
This comes just a few weeks after some other enticing literary features were announced. At the beginning of February, Spotify launched a “Page Match” tool that lets readers seamlessly alternate between a physical book or e-reader and an audiobook via page-scanning technology. It also announced a partnership with Bookshop, an online bookstore that supports independent bookstores (and a popular Amazon alternative), to promote book purchases directly through Spotify, which will receive a fee by way of affiliate links. This latter feature will launch in the spring.
The chart system includes a list of top audiobooks overall along with charts for 10 different genres: romance, mystery and thriller, self-help, sci-fi and fantasy, biography and memoir, business and careers, teen and young adult, religion and spirituality, history, and parenting and relationships. Some of the top audiobooks on the app as of today include recent screen adaptations like Wuthering Heights, The Housemaid and Heated Rivalry, as well as other best-sellers like Atomic Habits, My Husband’s Wife and Half His Age.
Spotify first introduced audiobooks to its platform in 2022, and has quickly seen major success. Back in October, Spotify shared that its seen a “36% year-over-year growth in individuals starting an audiobook and a 37% growth in listening hours.” Since its initial launch, Spotify has implemented a plethora of features to continue growing their audiobook market, from author pages to sleep timers that turn the book off if you’re falling asleep to it, providing users a well-rounded experience to immerse themselves in a Spotify-led reading experience.
What to Read Right Now, According to Cool Men
We talked to journalists, authors and editors about what books men should check out right nowAt a time when the relationship between books and tech, specifically how literature coexists with AI (tech companies stealing books to train chatbots, publishers and writers utilizing AI services), has been roundly criticized, Spotify is finding a positive way to use technology to pull in more readers.
On one hand, the company has solved a frustrating issue for many who opt to not read audiobooks because of how annoying it is to alternate between two means of reading. It’s also promoting Bookshop and its mission to a wider audience — an audience that, based on the charts, consists of users who are interested in catching up on major titles that are popular at a specific time for a specific reason.
The introduction of these audiobook charts, however, also signifies something else: Spotify could eventually integrate audiobooks into the platform so that they coexist on the same plane as music and podcasts — making the app a defining platform for books. Spotify could become a resource that indicates what’s trending; fosters a community for readers, publishers and authors; and reaches a larger population that may not traditionally opt for an audiobook, or a book of any kind.
“With music and podcasts, we’ve seen that when content is easier to access, discover and enjoy, demand grows,” Spotify said, per The Bookseller. “Audiobook charts are the next step in applying that same idea to books — making them more accessible, engaging and connected to culture in real time.”
A spokesperson also told the outlet that the audiobook chart is ranked based on listening activity and not just raw streams to “reflect genuine listener engagement.” It sounds like there’s still much more to come, and pretty soon, Spotify could start feeling like the new Goodreads.
Meet your guide
More Like This
This article appeared in an InsideHook newsletter. Sign up for free to get more on travel, wellness, style, drinking, and culture.
