Spotify integrates video clips to boost audiobook engagement, increase visual features

The news: Spotify is adding video clips and visual elements to its audiobooks, marking the streamer’s continued efforts to extract value from its investments into the offering.

• Authors or publishers can add a video snippet of up to 30 seconds, such as an interview clip or a behind-the-scenes video from the recording session, to go with their audiobook title.
• Spotify is also testing a “follow-along” feature that shows time-synchronized photos or illustrations as the audio plays, similar to supporting material in a paper book, and biography pages for authors.

Seventeen percent of internet users listen to audiobooks, per GWI, compared with 21% who listen to podcasts.

The trend: Adding video tools to its audiobook catalog could help capitalize on its investment into the medium over the past two years. Spotify pays “hundreds of millions” to audiobook publishers on an annual basis, per Axios.

• It acquired audiobook distribution platform Findaway in 2022 for €117 million ($126.6 million).
• Spotify’s efforts to earn back the cost of building its collection of more than 250,000 audiobook titles included a $1 to $2 per month price increase for Premium plans earlier this year.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told investors this month that audiobooks are one of the company’s top priorities to find capital returns and that the company is focused on finding sustainable profits from those investments.

Rebranding moves: These investments contribute to Spotify’s efforts to move its brand away from being known as an audio-only application. It also added music videos and video podcasting.

• The shift started as an uphill battle, since Spotify listeners were geared to start a podcast or audiobook and then turn away from the app, but Ek said the changes are bringing engagement up and churn down.
• 63% of the audiobooks audience listens while commuting, per Voices, meaning visual features aren’t always accessible. For Spotify in particular, 34% of its users listen while in the car.

Our take: Video clips often go viral on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, and these new visual features could help bring attention to Spotify’s audiobook catalog and spotlight the individual authors on its platform.

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