Spotify announced on Wednesday that it will expand its audiobook service to over 180 markets around the world, covering Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean region, the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. This promotion will begin on the same day and will continue to be advanced in the coming months. Spotify stated that with this move, more than 750 million users will be able to access audiobooks, thereby competing more effectively with music streaming services and audiobook apps such as Audible.

Prior to this, audiobooks were mainly available only in English-speaking markets, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany.

This audio platform states that it has over 350,000 audiobooks targeting new markets and has expanded its catalog to more than 120 languages. With its launch in Spain, Spanish users will now have access to over 45,000 Spanish-language audiobooks.

Spotify is collaborating with over 300 publishers worldwide, including Planeta and Mondadori, to increase the number of titles available in different markets.

In eligible countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, Norway, and Peru, Premium subscribers can listen to 12 hours of audiobooks. Global users can also purchase a separate Audiobook plus a subscription to get 15 hours of listening time. Alternatively, users can directly purchase individual books.

Spotify will also add Audiobook plus additional services to the student packages for some regions in November. The company stated that since its launch last year, Audiobook has gained over 1 million subscribers and has brought in more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue for the platform.

In February this year, the company launched the “Page Match” feature, which allows users to scan pages of paper books and find the corresponding listening positions in audiobooks. Spotify indicates that since its launch, this feature has been used by 1 million people each month.

Spotify indicates that in the past year, the monthly active listeners of audiobooks have increased by 40%, and the total listening time has increased by 30%.

This year, the company also launched Audiobook Charts to help users discover popular books. It also introduced a tool driven by AI, which uses a model from ElevenLabs to assist authors in converting books into audiobooks. In addition, Spotify has begun experimenting with selling physical books through its audiobook platform in certain markets, including the United States and the United Kingdom.