Audiobooks on Spotify

If you are one of the millions with a Spotify Premium account, you probably already listen to your favorite artists. But did you know that you can also listen to your favorite authors?

Recently, TINA.org received a tip from a long-time Spotify Premium subscriber who was thrilled that the company promotes audiobooks as “Included in Premium.” (Other Premium subscribers will likely see this messaging when they go into their Spotify app).

If you’re a bookworm you can likely relate to our reader’s feeling that this was like “stumbling onto an incredible treasure trove because audiobooks are expensive to buy, and impossible to borrow via your local library.”

However, if you have a Premium account, there are some things you may want to know before hitting the books. After TINA.org took a peek between the covers, we discovered that the limitations behind this feature could leave you on a cliffhanger.

For one, the “Included in Premium” messaging leaves out the fact that Spotify only allows Premium subscribers 15 total hours of audiobooks per month with their subscription (and doesn’t allow for extra hours at the end of the month to be carried over). Additionally, this time limit includes any time you rewind to re-listen. And you can’t make up the time by adjusting the playback speed (like a psychopath).

Without knowing this beforehand, you could end up like our frustrated reader who explained:

“I found out about this 15 hour limit when I had an hour left of a book I was listening to. I was suddenly interrupted by a voice that said I reached my listening limit for the month…”

Spotify’s solution? You can purchase its “top-ups” for additional hours. While the company isn’t clear about the exact price of these additional hours on its website, sources report that the cost for 10 extra hours is $12.99. (For reference, an entire month of an individual Premium subscription costs about the same).

To make matters worse, these limitations haven’t stopped Spotify from advertising titles that could be cut-off at an inopportune time. In fact, in the company’s recently released list of 2024’s top ten audiobooks nationwide, six are longer than 15 hours. So if you want to check out Spotify’s #1 A Court of Thorns and Roses, which is 16 hours long, it will take you a couple months (unless you purchase a top-up, that is):

And if you’re interested in reading the first two books (21 and 28 hours respectively) of the viral Empyrean series (the first of which, Fourth Wing, is listed above) before checking out the recently released edition, it would take you over three months with your 15-hours/month allotment.

What all this means is that audiobooks listening seems to work differently than listening to music or podcasts on the Spotify app. That’s because even though you might see the books in your library, they’re not always available to you unless you have available audiobook hours left in your account (or you pay for additional hours).

Spotify’s response

In response to TINA.org’s request for comment, Spotify stated that it is “transparent about how this offer works, ensuring eligible Spotify Premium users receive information about the availability of audiobook listening hours in their subscriptions, including via emails and in-app messaging.” The company also claimed that “On average, audiobooks consumed on Spotify run under 11 hours” and emphasized that users have “flexible options” through the use of top-ups, buying the book outright or waiting for the next billing cycle to continue listening.

The bottom line

Despite Spotify’s response, Premium subscribers still seem to feel misled by the advertising so the company may want to be clearer in its messaging before it ends up in consumers’ bad books.

Find more of our coverage on streaming services here.