Could Spotify’s locked audiobooks model be a new way for artists to make money on its platform?
MBW Reacts is a series of short commentaries by the MBW team. They are our ‘quick’ reactions – through the lens of music – to major entertainment news stories.
Spotify finally launched Audiobooks on its platform.
This week’s addition of the format, currently only in the US, comes 4 months after the CEO Daniel Ek outlines SPOT’s intention to double down on audiobooks during Spotify’s keynote Investor Day.
SPOT highlighted the opportunity in the audiobook market in Investor Daynoted at the time that it is “expected to grow from $3.3 billion to $15 billion by 2027”.
Spotify fulfills its intention to attract likes AmazonAudible’s got even clearer in June, when it closed its acquisition of digital audiobook distribution company Find a way.
Starting this week, Spotify listeners in the US will be able to buy and listen to over 300,000 audiobooks on the platform.
US users will see Audiobooks with music and podcasts as part of their library, in search, and in their curated recommendations on Home.
One of the most exciting aspects of launching Audiobooks on the platform is that access to this content will not be included in a user’s Spotify subscription.
Spotify says they will be displayed with a lock icon on the play button, and they will need to be purchased individually to listen to them.
Users will need to purchase those controlled audiobooks through a website, and when they return to Spotify, the books will automatically be saved in their library.
The concept of a locked play button, which can be unlocked through an additional purchase, got us thinking. Can this model be applied to artist content on Spotify?
By diversifying into its own content offering with a different audio format alongside music and podcasts, Spotify may have opened up a new way for artists to earn more from their fans on the internet. its foundation.
For example, an artist has a bonus track and they want to charge extra for it. What if that artist and their team had access to a feature in Spotify for artists that allows them to place a lock icon on that track, which only fans who buy more can access? can access?
The same can be applied to bonus behind-the-scenes podcasts, premium edition albums, or even exclusive music videos, if Spotify ever ventured into this space.
Spotify offers other ways for artists to generate income on its platform other than royalties from streams, like Fan support feature, formerly known as Artist Fundraising Choices. It launched during the lockdown when the artist cannot play the show.
In May, Spotify said that more than 200,000 artists have a Choose a Fundraising Artist link at the top of their profiles, with about 90% of artists using that feature to directly collect fan donations.
Artists can also manage and sell merchandise on their profiles through Spotify’s Shopify partnershipand Spotify also started concert ticket sales directly with fans last month through Website ‘Spotify Tickets’.
But allowing artists to lock in individual pieces of audio content and charge for access to it, could be a new way for Spotify to allow artists to generate potentially substantial additional revenue from super fans.
It’s worth noting here that last month, the streaming and discovery service Audiomack roll out Its new premiere Access‘This feature allows artists to reward their biggest fans with early access to officially unreleased music.
To unlock that access on Audiomack, a fan must become an ‘Advocate’ of an artist.
‘Supporters’ is a feature that Audiomack launched late last year, in parallel with partners such as Warner Music Group. It allows fans on the platform to contribute directly with money to songs and albums from their favorite artists.
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