Photo Credit: Spotify
Spotify is testing a video feature for audiobooks as it continues ramping up video expansion, starting with its push into visually enhanced podcasts.
Amid Spotify’s effort to improve its video offerings, the company is enhancing the audiobook experience for its premium users with video clips, as well as author pages, and the ability to add visuals that appear while listening.
The latter gives authors or publishers the option to submit a video of up to 30 seconds for their audiobooks. This feature can be used to add anything from an interview segment to behind-the-scenes footage, or a message from the author.
The functionality is the latest shiny cog in Spotify’s increasingly ramped-up investment into video. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek suggested an expansion into more video offerings during the company’s recent earnings call. Video consumption on the platform has grown in popularity since the launch of music videos and video podcasts — and Spotify wants to take more pieces of that pie away from YouTube, the current king of podcasts.
Spotify’s other visuals for audiobooks include “Follow Along,” a feature that aims to offer a more immersive experience to make users feel as though they’re flipping through a book with illustrations or photos. These visuals appear where the book cover typically shows on the screen, and can be found in the “extras” section, with timestamps for users to navigate to specific chapters.
To build on its Artist pages, Spotify is also testing “Author Pages,” dedicated profiles to showcase an author’s background, other works, and any other relevant information. This will also make it easier for users to explore an author’s entire catalog.
Only certain authors and publishers have access to these features for now, which are currently mobile-only. But premium listeners in all markets where Spotify audiobooks are available — including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Netherlands, and Luxembourg — can use these features on any author or publisher with access.
Lastly, Spotify has added a built-in Sleep Timer for audiobooks, enabling users to enjoy listening to a book while drifting off to sleep without having to worry about it continuing to play. Users can choose how long the audiobook should play before it automatically stops. Considering Spotify is offering audiobooks by listening hour for certain premium subscribers, this could be an essential tool for those not wanting to waste any of their precious listening time.