The Spotify audiobook experience has been lacking when compared to rivals like Audible, but it looks like that’s beginning to change. The streaming platform just announced a bevy of updates for audiobook listeners and some are downright useful.
Perhaps the biggest one for me is the addition of a sleep timer. Audiobooks are great for lulling people to sleep, but it sucks when you sleep through a hundred pages and can’t remember where you left off. The built-in sleep timer lets users set how long the content will play. This sleep timer already exists for podcasts and music.
Spotify users can also now make audiobook-specific playlists, helping people keep track of what they want to read or, uh, listen to. The platform says this tool will “help you keep your library organized” and that playlists will “be a place for you to aggregate the audiobooks on your reading list.” In addition to traditional playlists, the streamer will publish curated playlists from the audiobook editorial team.
There are new Countdown Pages, which are splash pages for forthcoming audiobooks. These let people save a book prior to the release date, making it easy to find once it actually comes out. Spotify says this feature can be used by authors, publishers, and narrators” to “help promote their upcoming titles ahead of launch.”
Speaking of promotions, Spotify’s new Author Pages display biographical information on specific writers and will allow perusal of their entire catalogs. This is in a pilot program for now, with only a “select number of authors” having access to the tool. There’s also a new video player specifically for audiobooks, that lets “select authors and publishers submit a short video about a specific title.” The platform likens this to a book’s jacket, offering a “taste of an audiobook before pressing play.”
Finally, some audiobooks are getting a follow-along feature. This is described as an “immersive visual experience” akin to a music video that displays illustrations, photos and graphics as the audiobook is being read. Look for this in the “extras” section of eligible audiobooks.
Last year, Spotify began offering 15 hours of audiobook listening to Premium subscribers. There’s also a subscription specifically for audiobooks that costs $10 per month that provides 15 hours of listening. The Premium subscription, however, costs $12 per month and adds ad-free music to the mix. It’s good to know that humanity’s collective musical output is worth $2 per month.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-drops-a-bunch-of-new-tools-for-audiobooks-including-a-sleep-timer-173327861.html?src=rss