Spotify Premium Now Includes Audio Versions of Long-Form Magazine Articles
On Tuesday, the audio streaming platform announced in a blog post that Spotify users can now listen to long-form magazine articles, as an extension to the platform’s audiobooks functionality. The Spotify magazine articles are available to Premium subscribers at no additional cost, as part of their monthly audiobooks playback allowance.
However, free users will have to purchase each article individually for $1.99 (roughly Rs. 191). On top of this, the company said that each article on Spotify is less than two hours long.
Spotify’s new ability is currently rolling out in the same 22 markets as the audiobooks. This means that it will soon be available to customers in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK, and the US.
The library of long-form magazine articles in the Spotify app currently has more than 650 articles from publications like Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, WIRED, Vanity Fair, and Pitchfork. However, the articles are currently available only in the English language.
Spotify’s new long-form magazine articles feature will act as a bridge for audiences, allowing users to transition from listening to podcasts to other longer-form media on the platform, like audiobooks, the tech firm claims. Moreover, it is said to also let users get additional information about the artists they listen to.
Colleen Prendergast, Spotify Audiobooks’ Licensing Lead, said, “With Articles, we’re introducing long-form journalism in audio as a natural extension of the music, podcasts, and audiobooks people already come to Spotify for, focused on topics we know they love.”
