Get ready to treat the fuck out of your ears ‘cos Spotify has officially launched its audiobook offering Australia. I am entering my literary era as we speak.
Spotify launched audiobooks in the US a couple of months ago, but as of November 22 they’re now available in Australia, the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.
There’s a whopping 300,000 books available to download for one-time purchase. But alas, the books do cost money even if you have a Spotify Premium account.
You also can’t purchase the audiobook on your Spotify app — it has to be done on the web browser first.
You’ll be able to preview the content for free before you buy a book though. It’s basically the audio equivalent of having a cheeky read in the bookshop before committing to your next novel.
Spotify’s audiobook offering has a couple of cool features, including an automatic bookmark and the ability to download your book so you can listen offline. The app includes speed control so you can whack up or turn down the reading pace.
Excuse me while I force all my friends to listen to Pride and Prejudice on our next road trip.
The catalogue features some stunning Australian titles including Growing Up Queer In Australia, The Dry, The Boy From Boomerang Crescent, The Other Side Of Beautiful and Boy Swallows Universe.
You can get to the audiobooks tabs by searching it like you’d search a song. It takes you to a beautifully curated selection of books organised in a bunch of different categories, including new releases, classics, celeb memoirs and more. You can also find curated selections of books by LGBTQIA+ and First Nations authors.
Much like you’d scroll through an album on Spotify and see all the individual songs, you can scroll through a book title and suss out the different chapters.
“We’ve always believed that the potential for audio is limitless, and we’ve been saying for a while now that our ambition is to be the complete package for everyone’s listening needs,” Spotify VP and head of audiobooks Nir Zicherman said when audiobooks launched in the US.
“Audiobooks are next to come into the picture because we see a substantial untapped market.”
The holiday season is always a big one for incredibly long drives so it’s a good idea to have an entertaining audiobook in your back pocket so you don’t throttle your siblings in the back seat. Plus a great option for all the easily-carsick book worms like moi.
And if you’re looking for something to read, have a suss of Litty Committee’s biggest new November releases. You can thank me later.
