Prices, How To Download, Use, & More
If you’re a Spotify user, you should listen (pun intended). Spotify recently launched a new collection of audiobooks for its service. It offers 300,000 audiobook titles to choose from, and you can listen to your favorite books on any Spotify device or app. Spotify’s new audiobooks can be a little tricky to use, especially when you’re trying to download them to your mobile app or sort them by price, but once you get the hang of it, you can check out all the tracks Spotify has to offer.
With Spotify’s addition of audiobooks on September 20th, you can *finally* listen to all your favorite songs, podcasts and books in one place — well, when you buy those books on Spotify. And if you’re new to the world of audiobooks, you might want to explore Spotify’s setup with bookmarking, free book previews, and more. You can also rate your audio book in the app. So when your friends ask you for book recommendations, you’ll have a complete list of your favorite recent reads.
Although customers have asked the company to add the feature for Years, the new audiobook feature might not be exactly what you were hoping for. If you’ve planned on trying out the new tracks for free, I hate to tell you: adding an audiobook to your Spotify catalog is going to cost you – even if you have Spotify Premium.
So if they’re not free, how much can you expect to pay per track as you expand your Spotify audiobook collection? Here’s the breakdown of everything you need to know about audiobooks on Spotify, from how much it costs to adding it to your library.
How much do Spotify audiobooks cost?
If you’ve played around with audio books before, you might have noticed that each book has a unique price. This is typical of the audiobook space – according to Spotify, each book is priced a la carte in line with what you would find elsewhere. There’s no way to sort by price when browsing the Spotify app, and there are no “Sale” sections if you’re shopping on a budget. You have to click into each title to see how much it costs.
Expect to spend about the same amount as you would for a regular book. For example the novel Olga dies in a dream by Xochitl Gonzalez, currently costs $20.90 while People we meet on vacation by Emily Henry is $18.49 starting September 26th.
How to Buy Audiobooks on Spotify App
You can’t buy Spotify audiobooks directly from the mobile app, but when you’re away from your laptop, you can use your app to start the process.
- Tap on the search icon at the bottom of your screen.
- Then tap the Audiobooks icon or search for a specific title.
- From there, explore the book options until you find one you want to listen to.
- Tap the book you want, then tap the green play icon with a lock icon on it.
- In the pop-up that appears, tap Get Mail.
- Open your email account linked to your Spotify account and you will see the email from Spotify with a purchase link (and the price).
- Tap “Buy Audiobook” and the screen will open Spotify in your web browser on your phone.
- Next to the book, tap Buy, then sign in to your Spotify account to complete the purchase.
It’s kind of a detour to get it done, but you’ll get there eventually.
How to Buy Spotify Audiobooks on the Internet
It’s much easier to start from the web.
- First, open your Spotify Web Player desktop app and go to “Search” on the page.
- Under Browse All, click the Audiobooks icon or search for a specific title.
- When you have found the book you want, click on the title and you will see the price.
- Tap the green “Buy” button and you will be navigated to a new page, enter your card information and address, then confirm the order.
- Once you’ve done that, you’ll be taken back to the Spotify app, where you can access the track on all your Spotify-compatible devices.
Oh, and by the way, Spotify audiobooks are yours forever when you buy them, so don’t worry about having to finish your novel by a certain time – once it’s yours, it’s yours forever.
Do you need a Spotify Premium subscription to buy audiobooks?
Just because you don’t have Spotify Premium (and use the free version instead) doesn’t mean you can’t join in the fun. According to the Spotify Audiobooks FAQ page, audiobooks are available to all users no matter what subscription plan you have.
Are there free audiobooks on Spotify?
Unfortunately, if you’re looking to snag a free audiobook, you’re out of luck. That being said, there seem to be some free versions of classic books available as albums or podcasts if you search by title, but they’re not served directly by Spotify.
Other Spotify audiobook features
Not only can you bookmark your seat and rate your collection, but you can also see how long it will take you to listen to the whole book, which is perfect if you have a long journey ahead of you. Or, if you’re only going a few miles up the road, you can also plan your trip around the length of the next chapter.
This is Spotify’s first foray into audiobooks, so it might not sit well with other platforms you’ve used, but if you’re a Spotify user it might just be worth a look, err listen.