Spotify and Findaway introduced right now that Findaway Voices, an audiobook distributor for unbiased authors, is eliminating its 20% distribution payment for audiobooks bought on Spotify. The streaming service acquired digital audiobook distributor Findaway again in November 2021.
Findaway says the change implies that Spotify now affords the best royalty authors could make when promoting their audiobooks with Findaway Voices. The transfer sees Spotify courting unbiased authors to its platform with the attract of upper earnings.
“We’re excited to announce that beginning in Might, there might be no 20% Findaway Voices distribution payment for audiobook royalties with Spotify,” the corporate wrote in a weblog submit. “Findaway Voices pricing construction for audiobook distribution is a quite simple 80/20 share, the place you retain 80% of your royalties. Our normal 80/20 pricing will stay the identical for all different companions—besides Spotify, the place we not cost a 20% distribution payment. When your audiobook is bought on Spotify now you obtain the entire 50% of the record value you set. Authors can discover a new viewers on Spotify who just lately introduced that its world month-to-month lively listeners are actually 515 million robust.”
With this replace, Spotify is making its platform extra interesting for authors. Spotify says it’s at the start of its journey to assist unbiased authors, and that it has plans to assist authors develop their attain, maximize income and construct a robust audiobooks enterprise, and notes that right now’s information is a part of this aim.
Over the previous few years, Spotify has been working to develop past music. The streaming service has invested tons of of tens of millions to construct out its podcast enterprise, and has been gearing as much as tackle the audiobooks business. Final September, Spotify launched assist for audiobooks for customers in the USA. The preliminary launch included 300,000 titles.
Much like different audiobook apps, Spotify affords a normal set of options, together with the flexibility to obtain titles for offline listening, price titles, alter the playback pace and pay attention throughout gadgets.
Spotify expanded the audiobooks service to the UK, Eire, Australia and New Zealand final November, after which introduced it to Canada in March. On the time, Spotify stated its catalog has grown to 350,000 titles. The corporate famous that it’s “seeing constructive engagement,” with out sharing any form of metrics about what which will seem like.