Spotify is letting authors market like musicians

Plus, Neil Young lost and Joe Rogan won.

by Ariel Shapiro

Mar 15, 2024, 9:45 PM UTC

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

This week, Spotify announced a new feature to let audiobook authors and publishers tease their new releases. Countdown Pages, which debuted for music artists last year and has been used by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, let fans pre-save an upcoming title and have it pop into their library when it’s released. The page is adorned with a large countdown clock — with a timer going down to the second — to get listeners excited. The feature’s not revolutionary, but it is in line with how Spotify differentiates itself as an audiobook provider.

Getting ahead of a new audiobook is pretty standard. On traditional platforms like Audible, you can preorder the title, and it will show up in your library on release day. But most people consuming audiobooks on Spotify are doing so through premium streaming rather than as a purchase, breaking the traditional release model. Combined with the promo page and countdown clock, the feature allows authors to engage in fandom in a way that is more typical of music than publishing. It’ll launch in mid-April.

I imagine this won’t be the last music-style feature we see added to Spotify’s audiobook vertical. After a bumpy start, the picture of what the company’s approach to audiobooks looks like is getting clearer. That doesn’t mean everything will work — I am particularly skeptical of the audiobook-only tier that costs only one dollar less than a regular premium subscription. But so far, the data does indicate that Spotify is expanding the market.

Lightning Round

The Kast Media saga has ended in bankruptcy, reports Bloomberg. The company was accused last year of not paying its podcast talent.
Joe Rogan won, Neil Young lost, and his music is back on Spotify after a two-year boycott of the platform.
Spotify says that its app updates in Europe are being held up by Apple. Because of new EU tech regulations, Apple has to allow the company to include pricing information for and links to subscriptions outside the App Store.
Shea Simpson has been named the new head of Amazon Music’s podcast business. He was previously the head of podcast partnerships at Wondery.
Engineers at YouTube Music are building the infrastructure for a “trim silence” feature for podcasts, reports 9to5Google. It allows listeners to automatically skip long periods of silence in an episode, saving a little bit of time. It is a feature that is part of Google Podcasts, which will be shut down on April 2nd.
As I reported yesterday, The Ringer union ratified its new contract with Spotify. Spotify Studios’ union (made up of the remnants of Gimlet and Parcast’s unions) approved their contracts, as well. The new deals include increased pay, severance, and AI protections.