Spotify recently announced a further enhancement to their Audiobooks+ feature, with a new AI-powered tool for self publishing audiobooks. The beta version will be launched in June, the statement from Spotify said, on an invite-only basis for now, and will be only available in English to start with. The move follows the subscriber pull that the Audiobooks feature brings to the platform.
However, audiobooks and audio reading apps are seeing a significant rise to relevance, as reading becomes less of a priority, while a massive selection of titles, floods the market. And, with it a rise in audiobook platforms. So much so that the verbs attached to the action have also changed — people no longer just ‘read’ a book, they can ‘listen to’ the book as well.
As for Spotify specifically, this new feature will allow self-published authors to upload their own audiobooks to the platform without binding them to any exclusive contract.
This list of authors has not been revealed as yet. This venture would be Spotify’s second with ElevenLabs — a voice AI startup — in enhancing the Audiobooks branch of the streaming platform. The first was the AI tool from ElevenLabs that allowed writers to create audiobooks and upload them to Spotify.
Rise of Niche Platforms
The climate is ripe for innovations in the audiobook market. Where apps like Audible and Scribd were the go-to platforms for audiobooks, with robust subscription models offering titles as freebies, now there are several other options to choose from, and several other subscription models to sift through. Not just that, audiobook apps have also distinguished themselves in terms of content, or genre of literature.
A heavily talked about app now is Quinn, an app for audio erotica — created by women, but not only for women. Its steady rise to relevance has not only been due to the nature of the content, but also on account of roping in well-loved and relevant celebrities to narrate stories, and releasing promotional videos and reels of the recording sessions on their social media.
Their recent collaborations have included Sam Heughan of Outlander fame, and Shawn Hatosy from HBO’s The Pitt, and snake wrangler and reality television personality Robert Rausch. Several publications have recognised the way the platform has broken into not only the audiobook market, but also the adult fantasy fiction literature or erotica market as well.
Similar to Audible and Scribd is Audiobooks.com that are compatible with both iOS and Android platforms. Barnes and Noble also has an added audiobooks service on their e-reader platform called NOOK, which can be accessed for a separate subscription. Other audiobook platforms like Libro.fm, LibriVox, And Blinkist are also available, but are not available in India, and can be accessed only through VPNs if one wishes to download them. Platforms like Storynory and Readmio publish only children’s titles, including bedtime stories, classics, originals and more.
Regional Growth
That said, Indian tech innovators have also jumped on the bandwagon of audiobooks. Storytel is a Swedish origin platform that has found its space in the Indian market, which offers titles primarily in regional languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Tamil, as well as English. Kuku FM, along with book summaries and courses, also offers several audio series and audio books in regional languages, while Pocket FM has found a niche in audio series, dramas, and entertainment.
Pratilipi FM is another such Indian platform that offers a significant collection of audio stories exclusively from Indian authors in different genres. However, on whether or not listening to audiobooks serves the same purpose as reading it, many say the cognitive process of understanding and learning while reading and listening are much the same.
An article in The Harvard Gazette earlier this year quotes cognitive neuroscientist Nadine Gaab, professor in learning differences at Harvard Graduate School of Education, who said it’s not true that anyone learns better by listening or by reading. Learning is the same regardless of the modality. He added that there is not much difference between the brain network for reading and language comprehension.
A Bloomberg report last year shared that in only two years since launching Audiobooks, Spotify had grown its audiobooks audience by 36% by 2025. Market.us, a market research firm, had predicted in a 2025 report that the global market for audiobooks will grow at a CAGR of 25.7% from 2022-2032. Where physical books became optional with the coming of Kindle and e-readers, Audiobooks are another such innovation.
According to scattered reports, while the listening audience for audiobooks is increasing, it does not reflect a direct impact on number of those preferring physical books. Further, some audiobook platforms, including Audible, have inbuilt reader features, that allow the reader to follow along while they listen to the text.