Spotify is increasing its choices with a reasonably large number of narrated long-form journal articles from a number of publications which might be more than likely already acquainted to you. The audio streaming service has introduced that it is adding over 650 long-form articles to its audiobook library. Whereas all of the items it added are within the English language solely, they are going to be obtainable in all of Spotify’s areas the place audiobooks can be found.
The articles included on this rollout embody items from Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Selection, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, WIRED, Self-importance Truthful and Pitchfork. Spotify has teamed up with extra publications, however as you possibly can see, the curated assortment provides articles on matters subscribers are more than likely curious about, specifically music and expertise. “With Articles, we’re introducing long-form journalism in audio as a pure extension of the music, podcasts, and audiobooks folks already come to Spotify for, targeted on matters we all know they love,” mentioned Colleen Prendergast, Licensing Lead at Spotify Audiobooks. Prendergast additionally mentioned that by providing subscribers shorter codecs to hearken to, the hope is for them to work together extra with books, notably the audiobooks in Spotify’s library, over time.
Every narrated article Spotify has launched is underneath two hours lengthy, and subscribers can hearken to them towards their audiobooks listening time. A Spotify Premium subscription contains 15 hours of audiobook listening time a month. Voracious readers should purchase top-ups, nevertheless, such because the Audiobooks+ month-to-month add-on with increased listening cut-off dates. They’ll additionally simply buy particular person articles to hearken to for $2 every.
The corporate mentioned in its announcement that the narrated articles it launched have been produced in-house by the Spotify Audiobooks group. We have requested Spotify for clarification whether or not which means the narrations have been performed by human abilities or generated utilizing AI, and we’ll replace this put up after we hear again.
Spotify introduced several generative AI-focused updates in the course of the firm’s investor day final week. One of many options it is launching subsequent month within the US will permit customers to generate private podcasts straight inside Spotify by drawing from the person’s profile and any file they add, together with PDFs and URLs. It is also launching “Prompted Playlists” for audiobooks, which might create playlists based mostly on person’s prompts describing what they need to hear extra of and their listening historical past.
