Photo Credit: Spotify
Spotify invests over a million dollars to help authors and publishers produce more audiobooks in other languages, starting with French and Dutch.
Spotify has announced a plan to invest €1 million ($1.1 million) to boost audiobook production in languages other than English, starting with French and Dutch. Adoption of Spotify’s audiobook offerings has been relatively slow in the Netherlands and France, which is why Spotify wants to start with these languages.
According to Spotify, less than 3% of French-language books are currently available in audio format, with only about 20,000 audiobooks in French compared to around 750,000 physical books. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, around 15,000 Dutch audiobooks are available out of a physical library of around 209,000 titles.
Spotify launched its audiobook service in France and the Benelux region (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg) back in October. The company believes the slow adoption can be attributed to the high production costs of creating audiobooks, which may deter publishers from converting written works into audio formats.
The company has emphasized its commitment to working with human narrators, but Spotify recently partnered with ElevenLabs to encourage authors to publish cost-effective AI-narrated content. However, that partnership has raised concerns among the publishing community.
Spotify has also left the music industry thoroughly displeased, as the company’s audiobook offering being bundled into its music plans reduces music royalties. Even worse, Spotify recently secured a win against the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), as a federal judge dismissed the latter’s copyright lawsuit levied against the former.
“The Court finds that […] the only plausible application of the law supports Spotify’s position,” wrote Judge Analisa Torres. “Under the facts alleged, audiobook streaming is a product or service that is distinct from music streaming and has more than token value. Premium is, therefore, properly categorized as a Bundle, and the allegations of the complaint do not plausibly suggest otherwise.”
The MLC alleged that Spotify had initially added audiobook access to its Premium offering in November 2023, which was before the shift in “bundling” was made official in pricing and royalty statements. But the judge found the timing to be of little consequence.
That decision may have an impact on future negotiations and other streaming services’ bundling classifications. It’ll be worth keeping an eye on to see how things evolve.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.