Spotify and the Audiobook Dilemma

I love audiobooks, but Audible is sort of a pain. A subscription for credits just doesn’t make that much sense.

I’m a big fan of Libby, but it’s not necessarily simple and has a limited selection.

Spotify rolled out their initial audiobook product, but it leaves a ton to desire. If they want to disrupt Audible – they need something better. Spotify has tons of limitations due to content rights/Apple being a pain in the butt. It sounds like Spotify is moving closer to some sort of subscription for audiobooks as part of a premium audio subscription (hifi, audiobooks streaming with hour cap, etc…), but I’m not sure that if that is going to take off either. I’ve seen conflicting reports that say audiobooks will be a part of the normal Spotify

I think the subscription model (even with hour caps) will be great for audiobooks power users, but how wide is the TAM for that? The real power for Spotify is the freemium model that can be the pipeline into new users. As Spotify continues to build out its ad network and proves out subscriptions for audiobooks is a viable business model, ideally these initiatives can converge to unlock a ton of potential.