Spotify’s New Audiobooks Can Be Tricky To Download — Here’s How To Do It

If you’re a Spotify user, you’re gonna want to listen up (pun intended). Spotify recently launched a new collection of audiobooks to its service. It features 300,000 audiobook titles to choose from, and you can listen to your favorite books across all Spotify devices and apps. Spotify’s new audiobooks can be a little tricky to use, especially if you’re trying to download on your mobile app or sort by price, but once you get the hang of it, you can check out all the titles Spotify has to offer.

With Spotify’s addition of audiobooks on Sept. 20, you can *finally* listen all your favorite songs, podcasts, and books in one place — well, if you buy those books on Spotify. And if you’re new to the world of audiobooks, you might like exploring Spotify’s setup, with a bookmarking feature, free book previews, and more. Plus, you can give your audiobook a rating in the app so when your besties ask you for book recommendations, you’ll have a full list of your favorite recent reads ready to go.

Though customers have been asking the company to add the feature for years, the new audiobooks feature might not be exactly what you hoped for. If you planned on checking out the new titles for free, I hate to break it to you: adding an audiobook to your Spotify catalogue is going to cost you — even if you have Spotify Premium.

So if they’re not free, how much can you expect to pay per title when expanding your Spotify audiobook collection? Here’s the breakdown of everything you need to know about audiobooks on Spotify work, from how much they cost to how to add them to your library.

How Much Do Spotify Audiobooks Cost?

If you’ve played around with audiobooks already, you might’ve noticed that each book has a unique price. This is typical in the audiobook space — according to Spotify, each book is priced à la carte in line with what you would find elsewhere. There’s no way to sort by price when searching through the Spotify app, and there are no “Sale” sections if you’re shopping on a budget. You’ll have to click into each title to know how much it costs.

Expect to spend close to the same amount that you would on a regular book. For example, the novel Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez, is currently priced at $20.90, while People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry costs $18.49 as of Sept. 26.

How To Buy Audiobooks On The Spotify App

You can’t buy Spotify audiobooks directly from the mobile app, but if you’re away from your laptop, you can use your app to get the process started.

• Tap on the search icon at the bottom of your screen.
• Then, tap the “Audiobooks” icon, or search a specific title.
• From there, explore the book options until you find one you want to listen to.
• Tap on the book you want, and then tap the green play icon with a lock icon on it.
• Tap “Get email” on the resulting pop-up.
• Open your email account associated with your Spotify account, and you’ll see the email from Spotify with a link to buy (and the price)
• Tap “Buy Audiobook” and the screen will open Spotify in your web browser on your phone.
• You’ll tap “Buy” next to the book and then sign into your Spotify account to finish the purchase.

It’s sort of a roundabout way to get it done, but you’ll get there eventually.

How To Buy Spotify Audiobooks On the Web

It’s much easier starting from the web.

• First, open your Spotify Web Player desktop app and go to “Search” on the side.
• Under “Browse All,” click on the “Audiobooks” icon, or search a specific title.
• Once you’ve found the book you want to listen to, click on the title, and you’ll see the price.
• Tap the green “Buy” button, and you’ll be navigated to a new page, enter your card information and your address, and then confirm the order.
• Once you’ve done that, you’ll be brought back to the Spotify app, where you’ll be able to access the title on all your Spotify-compatible devices.

Oh, and BTW, Spotify audiobooks yours forever when you buy them, so don’t worry about needing to finish your novel within in certain amount of time — once it’s yours, it’s yours for good.

Do You Need A Spotify Premium Subscription To Buy Audiobooks?

Just because you don’t have Spotify Premium (and use the free version instead) doesn’t mean you can’t join in on the fun. According to the Spotify audiobooks FAQ page, audiobooks are available for all users, no matter which subscription plan you have.

Are There Free Audiobooks On Spotify?

Unfortunately, if you’re looking to snag an audiobook for free, you’re out of luck. That being said, there appears to be some free versions of classic books available as albums or podcasts if you search the title, but they’re not provided by Spotify directly.

Other Spotify Audiobook Features

Along with bookmarking your place and rating your collection, you’ll also be able to see how long it’ll take for you to listen to the whole book, which is perfect if you’ve got a long road trip ahead of you. Or, if you’re only driving a few miles up the road, you can time out your trip around the length of the next chapter is, too.

This is Spotify’s first foray into the audiobook space, so it might not match up with other platforms you’ve been using, but if you’re a Spotify user, it might just be worth a look, er, a listen.