Spotify looks to tighten its grip on Australia with audiobooks launch
New figures show Spotify has a 70% share of the Australian streaming audio market. The launch of audiobooks may only extend its lead.
In late 2019, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek declared his ambitions for the platform to become a one-stop-shop for all things audio, working with the assumption that “over time”, more than 20% of listening on Spotify will be to “non-music content”. On Tuesday, the company announced it would count on audiobooks to help get there.
The announcement will see premium Spotify subscribers in Australia and the UK able to access 15 hours of audiobook listening each month, after the platform secured deals with publishers around the world for more than 150,000 book titles. After a user hits the 15-hour limit, they will be prompted to purchase a “10-hour top-up” to finish whatever they’re listening to, the company said.
The launch is only likely to entrench Spotify’s dominance in Australia, where the platform’s market penetration is more than 70%, according to new research from Kantar, and it has coverage of some 65% of paying music streaming consumers. The second most popular service in Australia is YouTube, which has just under 30% of consumers, followed by Apple Music, which captures 19%.
Andrew Northedge, consumer insights director at Kantar, said the gap between Spotify and its competitors in Australia would take about “five years” to close, given the platform’s low churn rate and expanded product offering.
