The news: Spotify isn’t planning to bring ads to audiobooks—for now. In an interview with Axios, the company’s head of music and audiobooks, David Kaefer, said, “advertising is not really a model we’re thinking about” for this product.
- Axios also reviewed internal Spotify documents revealing that the company is paying hundreds of millions annually to audiobook publishers for distribution rights.
- Despite these steep costs, the company said Premium users who engage with audiobooks spent five extra hours on the platform in the first 60 days after starting a book. Audiobook engagement has reportedly exceeded Spotify’s expectations, but the firm hasn’t revealed how many users engage with the format.