Spotify moves beyond audiobooks to offer physical books

Spotify's next bet on books isn’t digital — it's physical.

At a press event on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at Spotify's New York City headquarters, the streaming giant unveiled a slate of new book-focused features that push well beyond audiobooks. The updates include Page Match, a tool that lets readers seamlessly switch between physical or e-books and audiobooks, and a new partnership with Bookshop.org that will allow users to purchase physical books directly through the Spotify app.

Together, the moves signal a surprising but deliberate expansion: Spotify isn't just doubling down on audio. It's entering the physical book economy and positioning itself as a bridge between discovery, listening, and owning a book you can hold in your hands.

The announcement was framed by a stark statistic shared by Owen Smith, Spotify’s global head of audiobooks: Only 16 percent of U.S. adults say they read for pleasure.

"But that isn’t because people don't care about books," Smith said. "The world has changed. We live in a busier, more distracted world. People find it hard to focus. They find it hard to find the time to engage with a book."

Spotify's pitch is that reading doesn't need to compete with modern life — it needs to adapt to it. The company's new features are designed to make reading more flexible, more forgiving, and easier to pick up and put down without losing momentum.

Page Match wants to make switching between reading and listening seamless

The most technically ambitious of these is Page Match, which Spotify describes as a "first-of-its-kind" feature that connects physical books, e-books, and audiobooks into a single experience. Built using computer vision and text matching — not AI, Smith noted — the feature lets readers scan a page in the Spotify app to jump instantly to the corresponding moment in the audiobook, then scan again later to find their place back on the page.

While reading Rufi Thorpe's Margo's Got Money Troubles, for example, I found myself bouncing between the physical book at home and the audiobook while commuting. Each switch meant fumbling to find the right chapter or guessing how far along I was in the story. A feature like Page Match would have removed that friction entirely.

It's a continuation of Spotify’s recent push to reduce "drop-off" in books. Page Match follows Audiobook Recaps, which offer short, personalized summaries that help listeners re-enter a story after time away. These tools reflect Spotify's belief that the biggest barrier to reading today isn't interest but rather continuity.

"We want to help more people find more time to enjoy more books," Smith said. "If we do that, we also make Spotify a more valuable part of people's lives, a place where people feel inspired or energized after their session, not regretting the time they spent."

Page Match is rolling out to most English-language audiobooks for all Spotify listeners. Premium subscribers can start using it today with their monthly audiobook hours. Spotify says the feature will be fully available to everyone by Feb. 23.

Spotify is getting into physical books — with indie bookstores in mind

Beginning later this spring, users in the U.S. and UK will be able to purchase physical books directly in the Spotify app through a partnership with Bookshop.org, which routes sales to independent bookstores. Bookshop.org will handle pricing, inventory, and fulfillment, while Spotify becomes a new discovery and purchasing surface.

"We know that many people prefer reading physical books over listening at particular moments in their lives," Smith said. "So what we want to do is help people find and read more of them."

Andy Hunter, CEO and founder of Bookshop.org, framed the partnership as part of a broader, unexpected resurgence in independent bookselling. Speaking at the event, Hunter shared data showing that after years of decline, indie bookstores are rebounding.

Since 2020, more bookstores have opened than closed each year, he said. The American Booksellers Association has grown from 1,900 members to 3,200, and 90 percent of those stores now sell through Bookshop.org. In the past five years, the platform has sent more than $52 million to independent bookstores in the U.S. and UK.

"Booksellers are essential to readers, writers, publishers, and to keeping books a vital part of our culture," Hunter said. "[Books] cultivate critical thinking, empathy, and an understanding of ourselves in the world — traits that are much needed in this moment in history."

By integrating Bookshop.org into its app, Spotify is positioning itself as a discovery engine that can translate attention into physical ownership, while explicitly supporting local bookstores rather than bypassing them.

The expansion builds on Spotify’s growing audiobook business. Launched just over two years ago, Audiobooks in Premium has grown from 150,000 titles to more than 500,000 English-language books across 22 markets. Spotify says it has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to authors and publishers, with more than half of its audiobook listeners under 35, a significantly younger audience than the traditional audiobook market.

Listening continues to climb, too: the number of people starting an audiobook on Spotify is up 36 percent year over year, while total listening hours have grown 37 percent.