Spotify announced on Friday that it plans to invest €1 million — or approximately $1.1 million — to boost audiobook production in languages other than English, beginning with French and Dutch.
The investment indicates that Spotify is eager for more non-English titles in its limited library as it tries to compete with major players like Audible in the $8.7 billion global audiobooks market.
Adoption has been particularly slow in France and the Netherlands, which is why Spotify is starting with these languages.
According to the company, less than 3% of French-language books are currently available in audio format, with only 20,000 audiobooks in France compared to about 750,000 physical titles. In the Netherlands, around 15,000 Dutch audiobooks are available out of a physical library of 209,000 titles.
The company launched its audiobook service in France and the Benelux region this past October.
Spotify believes the slow adoption can likely be attributed to high production costs, which may deter publishers from converting their written works into audio formats.
Despite the company emphasizing its commitment to working with human narrators, Spotify recently partnered with ElevenLabs as a cost-effective solution to encourage authors to publish AI-narrated content. However, the use of AI narration has raised concerns within the publishing community.