Spotify launches Audiobooks+ in Pakistan at Rs489 a month

Minute Mirror reported that the plan gives access to more than 100,000 English-language titles through a dedicated Audiobooks section in the app. Unused hours expire at the start of the next billing cycle, and the subscription renews automatically each month. Users who finish the allowance can buy 10 more hours for Rs579, or buy single titles outright without subscribing. Pakistani users can browse, search and discover titles in the dedicated section, the report said.

The service includes automatic bookmarking, a sleep timer, offline downloads and Page Match, which syncs a printed or digital book with the audio, according to the report. Listening progress also syncs across supported devices. Readers can scan a book's barcode to jump to the right page, and more than one million people have used Page Match since February, the company said.

A capped allowance

Spotify has used the same model in other markets. In Italy, Spain, Poland, Brazil and Mexico, eligible Premium subscribers get 12 hours a month included, and anyone can buy single titles to keep, the company said. In Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Monaco, Premium includes 12 hours, with 10-hour top-ups and a recurring Audiobooks+ add-on. Across much of Africa and Asia, as well as Argentina, the main route is Audiobooks+, a paid add-on for extra listening hours.

Spotify launched audiobooks in 2022, TechCrunch reported, and has bundled the format with music and podcasts in Premium. The company says all its publishing deals are non-exclusive, so authors can sell the same books on rival services.

Global rollout

Spotify plans to take audiobooks from 22 markets to more than 180 by the end of 2026, with more than 350,000 titles in over 120 languages, it said at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The Pakistan launch is part of that expansion. Audiobooks+ has more than 1 million subscribers and over $100 million in annual recurring revenue, just over a year after launch, Spotify said. Monthly audiobook listeners grew nearly 40% in a year, and listening hours rose more than 30%. More than half of its global audiobook audience is aged 18 to 34. Spotify calls the push the first global audiobook service.

Scale check

Audiobooks+ is smaller than Spotify's core Premium business. The add-on has more than 1 million subscribers, against 306 million Premium subscribers in the third quarter of 2026, when Spotify added 6 million net subscribers, one million ahead of guidance. The Globe and Mail's summary of the earnings call said revenue was €5 billion, up 16% in reported terms and 14% at constant currency, with gross margin at 33%, up about 140 basis points from a year earlier, and operating income of €672 million.