Spotify seems to be expanding its audiobook offering yet further with Follow Along. Thanks to Publishing Perspectives for the details offered here. Spotify has been gathering pace in rolling out its audiobook program of late, with its Audiobooks+ offer to those on Family and Duo plans coming to a growing number of markets.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
Per Publishing Perspectives, this news is now being accompanied by news of another development. Follow Along is a feature that will provide, it seems, an additional layer of experience while listening to an audiobook. Initially, this would appear to mean a rotation of specially commissioned artwork. As Porter Anderson notes, this seems like a strange feature to add to a medium whose primary audience likes listening to their books rather than following them on the page—precisely because they can do other things at the same time.
Spotify’s Follow Along Feature
Unsurprisingly, given Spotify’s roots, one of the earliest and most fully rounded uses of the new Follow Along feature seems to be for Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series, whose acquisition Spotify announced prominently earlier this summer. This offers a guided visual tour through the works whose history is documented in the music criticism series.
Whether there is scope for us as authors to access aspects of this new feature remains to be seen. Indeed, it remains to be seen whether Follow Along will last long enough for that to be a meaningful question.
Concerns over Audible’s Royalty Model
While I am on the subject of audiobooks, I am aware that there has been increasing concern among author groups regarding the new royalty arrangements that are in the offing from Audible. The change, which is currently in very limited beta, would involve payments being made to authors whose works are listened to on an “all you can eat” basis, with the stinger being that those payments would be made from funds arising from readers who have paid à la carte prices for other titles.
That would mean less of that title-specific premium going to the authors of those titles. ACX Audible has posted on this recently, and author and rights holder groups and forums have been awash with concern, to the extent that a petition has been drawn up calling for Audible to change the scheme.
At this point, I want readers of this column to know I am aware of the discussion, but watch this space for more detail.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and our own ALLi team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi's Self-Publishing Advice Center.
