In an expansion of its existing audiobook efforts, Spotify on Thursday announced the launch of a new publishing program for authors that allows them to submit short-form stories they\u2019d like to see turned into audiobooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Spotify selects a story for audiobook publishing, it will handle the production and distribution of the work to other major audiobook retailers, the company said. Meanwhile, Spotify will pay the author both an advance and royalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spotify said it\u2019s specifically looking for stories across three genres: romance, mystery or thriller, and sci-fi or fantasy. Having seen the success of titles like fantasy romance \u201cA Court of Thorns & Roses,\u201d which was 2024\u2019s top audiobook on the service, Spotify is encouraging authors to submit cross-genre works like \u201cromantasy, dark romance thriller, mystery sci-fi, or psychological thriller.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Spotify said it won\u2019t accept submissions of erotica or children\u2019s content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spotify said that audiobook candidates should be novelettes of approximately 10,000 to 20,000 words in English. Authors should have the audio rights for the stories they submit for consideration, the company added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spotify said submissions will be selected for production on a rolling basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The expansion will allow Spotify to more directly compete with the audiobook giant Audible, which offers its subscribers access to Audible Originals and exclusives. Those tend to be shorter books and stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spotify first expanded from music and podcasts into audiobooks with the acquisition of digital audiobook distributor Findaway in 2021. Findaway operated a number of services in the audiobook space, including those focused on production, distribution, connecting authors with voice actors, bringing audiobooks to schools, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spotify later rolled out free audiobook listening to Spotify Premium subscribers in 2023. From a catalog of some 200,000 titles, customers can access 15 hours of monthly audiobook listening for free, and can optionally buy additional hours if they need more listening time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Spotify\u2019s move into the audiobook market, it\u2019s been working to expand its catalog, including through the addition of audiobooks narrated by ElevenLabs\u2019 AI voice technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an expansion of its existing audiobook efforts, Spotify on Thursday announced the launch of a new publishing program for authors that allows them to submit short-form stories they\u2019d like to see turned into audiobooks. When Spotify selects a story for audiobook publishing, it will handle the production and distribution of the work to other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1177,"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176\/revisions\/1177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timesofmedia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}