Whilst Spotify look to find a place for original audiobooks on their platform, Deezer have jumped ahead with releases from Michelle Obama, Stephen Hawking, and many more.

Deezer have just released a whole range of audiobooks available to their free and paying users in the Netherlands. With 12 book categories covering everything from kids books to classics, adult fiction to religion, spirituality and personal development their new audiobook channel is a massive boost to content on their platform.

Their Audiobook channel will allow users to browse through all of the available content and also explore what editors have picked out to recommend. The audiobook content will be regularly updated and so will the featured books which will be selected by local editors.

You can even share your audiobook listening experience with others. The option to select a chapter and share a link on socials allows you to spread the moments which resonate with you. Premium subscribers are able to download audiobooks for offline listening the same as music.

Head of Content for Europe, Africa, and Asia at Deezer, Robin Wilms says: “Audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular in the Netherlands and the overall publishing market share is expected to increase to 5% by next year. So it’s not surprising that our users want to listen to music one minute and then switch to a podcast or an audiobook the next.

“Now with our new audiobook channel, our users have the flexibility to stay within the app and listen to it all. The best part is our channel is available to all paying and non-paying Deezer subscribers in the Netherlands.”

Audiobooks are already available to Deezer users in Germany. They haven’t said whether there are any plans to release them to users in other countries where their platform is available.

Deezer’s audiobook addition comes as Spotify look to evolve their platform with audiobook content. Both streaming platforms have helped to pioneer the popularity of combining music streaming with podcasts, and podcasts have helped to grow Spotify’s popularity and make them home to some of the world’s biggest podcast shows.

Earlier this year Spotify launched an exclusive reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by some of the wizarding world’s most notorious actors. A recent job advert shows that they’re looking deeper into creating original audiobook content for their platform. For now, however, Deezer are one step ahead with their new catalogue.