Spotify expands audiobooks access to family plan members in the US for the first time | TechCrunch

Spotify is expanding access to its audiobooks to more U.S. subscribers. The company on Tuesday announced the launch of its $11.99 per month Audiobooks+ plan in the market, which allows subscribers or their household members on a Family or Duo plan to add 15 hours of audiobook listening during the month on top of the base plan.

Though Spotify launched its audiobooks service in the U.S. back in 2022, household members on Duo and Family plans have long been left out.

The offering makes audiobooks available to household members for the first time in the U.S. market.

Through Spotify Premium, subscribers already have access to 15 hours of audiobook listening per month and can buy additional hours to top off that, as needed. However, 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.

While that may be overkill for any but the more voracious audiobook listeners, the U.S. rollout of Audiobooks+ also means that other members on a subscription plan besides the cardholder can now also access Spotify’s audiobooks catalog for the first time. This is made possible through the add-on called “Audiobooks+ for Plan Members.”

With the launch, the U.S. joins a handful of 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.

The announcement of the plan’s expansion to the U.S. comes shortly after a tough quarter for the streaming giant, where it missed expectations and reported weak guidance. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek pointed to a weaker ads business as the cause. (Spotify’s ads chief had just left for DoorDash, media outlets reported ahead of earnings.)

Despite the loss, one bright spot for the company in the quarter was its user growth. Active users grew 11% to 696 million, and paid subscribers grew 12% to 276 million in during the second quarter. The goal with the new Audiobooks+ plan is to extract more money from those existing customers.

In December, publisher HarperCollins teased a solution for the problem with household members’ inability to access audiobooks. HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said at the time that Spotify was working to adjust a “technical problem” with family plans that limited audiobook streaming only to the family plan’s credit card holder.

Last month, Spotify made good on that promise when it expanded audiobook access to plan members for the first time with the launch of Audibooks+ in several non-U.S. markets.

Spotify doesn’t share how many of its Premium subscribers stream audiobooks in addition to music or podcasts, but notes that audiobook listening hours are up more than 35% year-over-year in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Notably, that’s before these add-on plans became available.

The news of the new subscription follows Spotify’s announcement on Monday 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.