Spotify starts selling print books
Spotify expanded its consumer offering: audiobooks in Premium are live in 22 markets and printed book sales have gone live in the U.S. and UK through a partnership with Bookshop.org, broadening Spotify’s direct-to-reader moves (newsroom.spotify.com).
Spotify is now selling printed books in the United States and Britain through Bookshop.org links inside its app, extending its push beyond music and audiobooks. (newsroom.spotify.com) The feature went live on Android on April 15, and Spotify said iPhone support will arrive next week. On an audiobook page, users now see a button that sends them to Bookshop.org to finish the purchase. (newsroom.spotify.com; techcrunch.com) Spotify announced the Bookshop.org partnership on February 5, alongside a feature called Page Match that lets readers scan a page in a print or electronic book and jump to the same spot in the audiobook. Spotify said Page Match now works in more than 30 languages. (newsroom.spotify.com; newsroom.spotify.com) The print-book link gives Spotify a way to make money from readers who discover a title in audio but want a paper copy for home. Bookshop.org says every purchase on its site financially supports local independent bookstores. (thenextweb.com; bookshop.org) Spotify tied the print launch to a broader books update. The company said its “Audiobooks in Premium” program is now live in 22 markets, up from its first rollout a little more than two years ago. (newsroom.spotify.com) Spotify also said its audiobook catalog has grown from 150,000 titles to more than 700,000 titles, and that it pays authors and publishers hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Those figures came from Spotify’s own update, and the company did not break out how much of that payout came from subscriptions, one-off purchases, or other deals. (newsroom.spotify.com) The company has been widening the audiobook offer inside Premium rather than treating books as a separate app. In July 2025, Spotify introduced an “Audiobooks+” add-on that gives eligible Premium users 15 extra listening hours each month on top of the base allotment. (newsroom.spotify.com) Spotify is also borrowing music-style discovery tools for books. This week it launched weekly audiobook charts in the United States and Britain and added annual listening recaps for audiobook users. (newsroom.spotify.com) The move puts Spotify closer to a full books storefront, even though checkout still happens on Bookshop.org rather than inside Spotify. For now, the app that taught users to press play is also trying to become a place where they decide what to read next. (techcrunch.com; newsroom.spotify.com)
