Spotify goes after Apple Books with new audiobook acquisition

Spotify continues to build on its dominance in the audio space with its latest acquisition.

The company announced today that it has acquired Findaway, an audiobook distribution platform that makes it easy for authors and narrators to create and distribute audiobooks across the market.

Gustav Söderström, Spotify's Chief Research & Development Officer, says that the acquisition will help "accelerate Spotify's presence in the audiobook space."

"It's Spotify's ambition to be the destination for all things audio both for listeners and creators. The acquisition of Findaway will accelerate Spotify's presence in the audiobook space and will help us more quickly meet that ambition. We're excited to combine Findaway's team, best-in-class technology platform, and robust audiobook catalog with Spotify's expertise to revolutionize the audiobook space as we did with music and podcasts."

According to Spotify, the audiobook market is expected to grow from its current $3.3 billion to $15 billion as soon as 2027.

Findaway works across the entire audiobook ecosystem with a platform and offerings that serve authors, publishers, and consumers of this rapidly growing industry, which is expected to grow from $3.3 billion to $15 billion by 2027. In addition to offering the largest catalog of distributed titles, Findaway has actively worked to democratize audiobooks through leading technology tools available for independent authors to create and bring their stories to life. We plan to build on Findaway's significant innovation in the space, and we're going to supercharge its growth, bringing everything Spotify knows around personalization and discovery while also innovating on format, delivery, creator tools, and more.

It's currently unclear exactly what will come of the Findaway acquisition, but one could make an educated guess. The acquisition is similar to Anchor, a podcasting platform that the company acquired a few years ago. Not only did Anchor make it easy to create and publish podcasts, but it was obviously easy to then get those podcasts hosted on Spotify.

It's likely that Findaway will result in something similar - an easy way to create audiobooks and also get them onto Spotify. It sounds like a win for Spotify as it continues to build an all-in-one solution for all of your audio needs.