Spotify has announced the acquisition of Findway, a popular audiobook service and distributor. The company has multiple businesses, including Findaway Voices, distributing audiobooks to various platforms and providing audiobook development services. Spotify is partnering with authors and narrators, which might be a lucrative new revenue stream for the corporation.
“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,” said Gustav Söderström, Spotify’s Chief Research & Development Officer. “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.”
“Together with Spotify we have the opportunity to innovate and democratize the audiobook ecosystem,” said Findaway Founder & CEO Mitch Kroll. “We founded Findaway with the recognition of the power of the spoken word through audiobooks and the unique opportunity to empower storytellers and connect them with listeners. We look forward to combining our leading technology tools and world-class team with the reach of Spotify’s platform to provide an enhanced audio experience for creators, publishers, and listeners around the world.”
“With this acquisition, we’re going to be able to accelerate the addition of an audiobook catalog onto the platform so that users can effectively get all of the audio content that they want all on one platform,” says Nir Zicherman, head of audiobooks at Spotify.
The team is working on “innovation” in the space to make audiobooks a “richer experience,” as well as “democratization,” which allows more people to create and publish audiobooks, according to Zicherman. It also wants to work on audiobook discovery instead of music and podcasts, which it has focused attention on.
Zicherman also says the core Spotify app will likely gain more audiobooks in early 2022 when certain Open Access partnerships begin distributing content there. However, these aren’t the first indications of Spotify’s interest in the audiobook market. In January, it collaborated with YouTubers and celebrities to disseminate audio versions of famous classics such as Frankenstein, and it also teamed up with J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World to offer Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in audio format.
“Findaway supports authors, publishers, and consumers throughout the entire audiobook ecosystem with a platform and products that serve this rapidly growing industry, which is predicted to grow from $3.3 billion to $15 billion by 2027,” Spotify said in a press statement.
Findaway has actively worked to democratize audiobooks by making leading technology tools available for independent authors to create and bring their stories to life. In addition to offering the largest catalog of distributed titles, Findaway has actively worked to democratize audiobooks by making 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.” – Spotify.
Spotify and Findaway will collaborate to speed up Spotify’s entry into the rapidly developing audiobook industry, allowing for faster innovation and the distribution of audiobooks to Spotify’s hundreds of millions of existing listeners.
Spotify will be able to quickly scale its audiobook catalog and improve the customer experience according to Findaway’s technical backbone, while publishers, writers, and independent creators will have new ways to reach new audiences across the world. Spotify’s acquisition positions it to change the space in the same way that music and podcasts have, by allowing content to reach a worldwide audience through its global platform.
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