Spotify ventures into physical book sales, adds new audiobook features

Techcrunch reports Spotify announced updates to its audiobook business that include an expansion into physical book sales and new listening features, notably a tool called Page Match and the wider rollout of Audiobook Recaps. Users in the U.S. and the UK will be able to purchase physical copies through the app this spring.

Spotify partnered with Bookshop.org, and audiobook pages will include a button labeled 'Add to your bookshelf at home' that links to Bookshop, which handles pricing, inventory and shipping; purchases will benefit local, independent bookstores. Page Match, currently available to premium subscribers and set to roll out to all audiobook users by late February, lets users scan a page from a physical book or e-book to jump to the corresponding spot in the audiobook.

The feature uses a combination of Spotify’s in-house and third-party computer vision and image scanning technologies and is available for most English-language titles; the platform now hosts more than 500,000 titles.

United States, United Kingdom