Spotify is investing €1 million to boost French and Dutch audiobooks, supporting authors and expanding accsess.

Spotify has announced a step forward in its audiobook strategy, committing a €1 million investment to support authors and publishers in producing more audiobooks, specifically in French and Dutch. This initiative aims to close the gap in non-English audiobook content, empower local creators, and expand the diversity of Spotify’s growing catalog.

Audiobooks are one of the fastest-growing publishing formats, but producing them isn’t cheap, especially for independent authors or smaller publishing houses. High production costs, including studio time, narrators, and editing, often make it tough to justify an audiobook release, especially in markets outside the English-speaking world.

Spotify’s €1 million fund aims to directly address this issue by co-financing new audiobook projects in French and Dutch, two languages with vibrant literary cultures but relatively small audiobook libraries.

To put the need into perspective:

  • In France, less than 3% of all books are currently available in audio format.
  • In the Netherlands, only around 15,000 Dutch-language audiobooks exist—compared to a massive 209,000 physical book titles in circulation.

That’s a huge gap, and a missed opportunity not just for publishers and authors, but for listeners as well.

Spotify isn’t keeping these audiobooks exclusive to its platform, either. That’s an important detail. The company has made it clear that any content funded through this initiative will be non-exclusive, meaning authors and publishers will be free to distribute their audiobooks across other platforms like Audible, Apple Books, or Google Play.

This open approach is designed to benefit creators, not just Spotify. It’s a win-win: Spotify expands its library and appeal to more global listeners while publishers and authors get financial support and retain distribution control.

Spotify will collaborate directly with local publishers and authors to identify which projects get backing. Though full details of the selection process haven’t been shared, it’s likely that the company will prioritize books that fill current catalog gaps or have strong cultural or commercial potential.

One of the more interesting, and potentially controversial, angles in this initiative is Spotify’s acknowledgment that it is exploring AI-generated narration as a way to make audiobook production more affordable.

While Spotify says it still strongly values the quality and connection of human narration, it’s open to AI tools as a supplementary option. This could help scale production, especially for smaller titles or back-catalog releases where budget constraints make traditional narration less feasible.

Spotify has been quietly but steadily expanding its audiobook offerings over the past couple of years. In late 2023, it launched audiobooks for Premium subscribers, offering 15 hours of monthly listening as part of the plan.

Since then, Spotify has made clear its intention to challenge existing audiobook giants like Audible by offering not just a library of titles, but a more flexible, Spotify-style user experience that integrates audiobooks into the same ecosystem as music and podcasts.