Spotify has just released narrated and edited versions of nine classic English-language books on its digital platform. Although the audiobooks are all already in the public domain, the streaming service has hired big names for its exclusive recordings, including Hilary Swank, Forest Whitaker and Cynthia Erivo. The books are all in English.

The audiobooks available so far are “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley; “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin; “Persuasion” by Jane Austen; “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Written by Himself” by Frederick Douglass; “Cane” by Jean Toomer; “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens; “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë; “Freaking Out” by Nella Larsen; and “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane.

This new feature is quite interesting, but it is far from the first time Spotify has invested in audiobooks. In 2018, the platform made an agreement with Bloomsbury Publishing to launch audiobooks about music on the streaming service – all also in English. Last year, the company published audiobooks the entire Harry Potter series.

A shy novelty

If you, like me, opened the streaming service and didn't find anything I'm talking about on the homepage, don't be surprised. In addition to the launch being announced only in English-speaking countries, Spotify doesn't have an exclusive interface that separates audiobooks from other content at the moment. To find them, you need to search by title.

Spotify has a playlist dedicated to Audiobooks, with classics such as “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, among many others. In it, the books appear as music tracks. The format, however, is not optimized: some books are divided into chapters, while others are divided into parts. To make matters worse, there is no unity among the artists – sometimes, the books are registered with the name of the producers or narrators. In other cases, the names are the authors.

It is to be expected that engagement will eventually make audiobooks available on Spotify in our language as well. A quick search for the term “audiobooks Brazil” or “audiobooks” reveals that some users are publishing their readings of classics. However, these files may go offline, as determined by the holders of publishing rights.

Testing new waters

Spotify claims that the launch is part of a usability test of the platform. However, it seems that the streaming service is really testing the waters of its literary content, including in the form of podcasts, which the company has been betting on for some time. The company has launched a series of literary analysis podcasts, Sitting with the Classics, by Harvard professor Glenda Carpio.

If this “test” is a success, the company may have found a way to get its more literate listeners into the audiobook market, rivaling Amazon’s Audible. It’s worth remembering that Spotify’s audience is interested in more than just music: 320 million users, at least a fifth of them have listened to audio programs in the last quarter.

Prior to that, in 2019, the platform's CEO, Daniel Ek, acquired two major podcast production companies – Gimlet Media and Anchor – realizing that the public in Germany was consuming the format extensively. Since then, he has been signing contracts with names such as Prince harry and Joe Rogan, as well as Barack and Michelle Obama. The company also opened a position for head of audiobooks in mid-2020 and has made a deal to NPR content distribution.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. The Hollywood Reporter

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