Spotify unveiled a new AI tool for self-publishing audiobooks within the Spotify for Authors platform alongside tools for AI-generated podcasts. Announced at its Investor Day, the ElevenLabs-powered feature will enter beta in June on an invite-only basis, initially supporting English. Authors can publish their AI-generated audiobooks anywhere, not bound by exclusivity. This development follows Spotify’s previous partnership with ElevenLabs for AI-narrated audiobooks. Spotify also collaborates with Google Play Books for digitally narrated content but seeks to offer more expressive, human-like models like ElevenLabs’. Additionally, Spotify’s platform will now support 10 more languages, including French, German, and Spanish, among others. Spotify plans to expand Audiobook+ plans, allowing higher listening limits, plus new options for students and families, without specifying pricing details. With over a million Audiobook+ subscriptions, Spotify aims for $100 million in annual recurring revenue. The company introduced natural language for audiobook discovery and will extend prompt-based playlist features to audiobooks. Focused heavily on audiobooks recently, Spotify has expanded its catalog to 700,000 titles, launched internationally, invested in non-English titles, enabled in-app purchases, and introduced audiobook charts. It also started a program for selling physical books in the US and UK. These efforts have increased listening hours by 60% year-on-year, with over half of audiobook listeners joining within the last year.
Spotify Unveils Audiobook Creation Tool Powered by ElevenLabs
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