Spotify to launch 15-hour Audiobooks+ add-on in India on 12 November 2026

In India, Audiobooks+ will be an add-on for existing Premium subscribers, giving 15 hours of listening a month, according to Gizbot. Spotify says pricing will be announced closer to launch and tailored to local listening behaviour.

Free and Premium users will also be able to buy individual audiobooks. Spotify's standard Premium plan in India will not include a monthly audiobook allowance at launch. The catalogue covers more than 350,000 titles across over 120 languages, Gizbot reported.

India is a major Spotify market with a large monthly active user base but relatively low Premium penetration, Gizbot reported. Audiobooks could give the company another way to earn from its existing audience.

What Audiobooks+ costs in the US

Digital Music News reported that Audiobooks+ costs $11.99 a month for 30 hours of listening in the US. Spotify has not said whether the India plan will match that price.

The global expansion

Spotify announced on 7 October 2026 that it would take audiobooks from 22 markets to more than 180 by the end of 2026. Monthly audiobook listeners grew nearly 40% over the past year, and listening hours climbed more than 30%, the company said.

Digital Music News reported that more than one million users have subscribed to Audiobooks+ to date and that the tier generated roughly $100 million in annual recurring revenue as of July. About half of those listeners are under 35, the report said. Gizbot reported that Spotify works with nearly 300 publishers globally.

Digital Music News listed the 22 existing markets as the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Monaco, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, Chile, Norway, Peru and Argentina. Access is expanding across Africa and Asia as well as more European and American countries.

“Books change how we see the world and the people in it,” said Owen Smith, Spotify's vice president of audiobooks. “For a lot of people, audiobooks are how they find their way back to reading, on the commute, on a walk, or at the end of a long day. Bringing audiobooks to more than 180 markets means millions more people can discover that, and authors and publishers can reach readers they’ve never been able to reach before.”

Publishers call the bundle a scam

The National Music Publishers Association and other publishers call the audiobook bundle a scam, saying it is a scheme to lower mechanical royalty payments to songwriters and publishers. They describe the mechanism: Spotify adds audiobook access to a plan and charges an extra $1 a month, creating a bundle that qualifies for lower rates.

Digital Music News reported that more than one million users knowingly chose the Audiobooks+ tier, rather than having audiobook access folded into a music plan they already paid for.

Audible is the incumbent

In India, Spotify will compete with Audible, which Amazon owns. Gizbot reported that Spotify's advantage is that audiobooks will sit in an app people already use for music and podcasts.

SQ Magazine reported that Amazon Music Unlimited added Audible audiobook listening on 19 November 2024, with one free audiobook a month for subscribers in the US, UK and Canada. The audiobooks sit inside the top tier and are not sold as a separate add-on.

SQ Magazine reported that Amazon's last verified subscriber announcement put Amazon Music's global customer base at more than 55 million across all service tiers, and that it has not confirmed a count since the 2020 milestone.