At Spotify’s investor day presentations, global head of audiobooks Owen Smith said that the company’s program that sells subscribers an additional 15 hours of audiobook listening a month (Audiobooks+) for $11.99 is “on track to reach $100 million in annualized recurring revenue this July.” (Financial translation: The means that by July, they expect monthly sales to reach $8.33 million.) To further that growth, they will be adding a higher tier for “power readers” as well as “Family and Student plans.” Smith underscored that, “Almost half of our audiobook listeners are under 35—meaningfully younger than the broader market—and we’re helping publishing […]
Audiobooks
Borders Live with Audio Downloads
The promised inclusion of downloadable audiobooks at Borders’ web site has gone live, with “an initial 15,000 titles” on offer. The company says that over a third of those titles are available in (DRM-free) MP3 files. Starting today and running through Saturday, you can download a free audio version of Jon Krakauer’s INTO THE WILD, and an additional 15 titles from top authors (including the topical TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer) will sold at the promotional discount price of $9.95 through July 22. As noted previously, Borders has partnered with OverDrive for both the inventory and the underlying technology for the […]