Spotify is beefing up its audiobook streaming service with a feature that may be familiar to music consumers of the app: Countdown Pages. These YouTube-like countdown pages launched alongside other new additions for Spotify artists last year, offering a dedicated space on artist profiles where a timer could count down to a new release. Now, the same option will be available to audiobook publishers and authors, the company announced today at the London Book Fair.
For audiobooks, the countdown pages will allow Spotify users to pre-save books before their release. When the book becomes available, Spotify will notify users via a notification. With this new option, publishers and authors will be able to promote their book before its release, building interest in the upcoming title — just as they can today on other sites like Amazon where books can be pre-ordered.
Additionally, when users visit the Countdown page to save a title, they’ll be able to tap a “More Like This” tab to see similar, but already released, books they can listen to immediately. This could lead to further adoption of audiobooks overall.
Before expanding to audiobooks, Countdown Pages was used by artists including Taylor Swift, Karol G, Florence and the Machine, Paramore and the Jonas Brothers — the latter of whom showcased the feature at Spotify’s press event last year. Since then, more than 80% of people using the pre-save feature will stream the new version within the first week on average.
Countdown pages for books will be available in mid-April, Spotify said.
The company also offered an update on usage of its audiobook service, noting that “millions” of users have now listened to over 150,000 titles on the platform since its launch. In total, the service offers a catalog of over 200,000 audiobook titles. With the addition of the new Countdown Pages feature, Spotify hopes to further increase adoption of the service by leveraging its largest global user base of over 600 million listeners.
Spotify first announced that audiobooks would become part of its Premium subscription in late 2022, with the initial launch in the UK and Australia, followed by the US and Canada and elsewhere. With a Spotify subscription, users can stream 15 hours of audiobooks per month. Otherwise, free Spotify users can now opt for a standalone audiobook subscription for $9.99 per month, which debuted earlier this month.
Audiobook countdown pages will roll out in all markets where Spotify audiobooks are available, including the US, Australia, UK, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand.
