Spotify is expanding access to its audiobooks service in the U.S. with the launch of the Audiobooks+ plan, priced at $11.99 per month. This plan allows subscribers on Family or Duo plans to add 15 hours of audiobook listening per month. The offering makes audiobooks available to household members for the first time in the U.S. market.
The Audiobooks+ plan gives subscribers the option to add on recurring access to 15 additional hours every month, on top of the Premium plan’s existing monthly allotment. The U.S. joins other markets with access to Audiobooks+, including Ireland, Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.
This expansion comes after a tough quarter for Spotify, where it missed expectations and reported weak guidance. However, active users grew 11% to 696 million, and paid subscribers grew 12% to 276 million during the second quarter. Spotify aims to extract more money from existing customers with the new plan. In December, HarperCollins teased a solution for household members' inability to access audiobooks. Last month, Spotify expanded audiobook access to plan members with the launch of Audibooks+ in several non-U.S. markets.
Audiobook listening hours are up more than 35% year-over-year in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Spotify also announced that its subscription prices are increasing from €10,99 to €11,99 across markets in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Spotify says it will experiment with other options for book fans in the future, including direct sales.