Spotify's New 30-Hour Audiobook Plans Still Fall Short for Long Reads
However, for avid audiobook listeners, the new limit may still feel frustratingly tight. While 30 hours might be enough to squeeze in a couple of shorter novels, it falls short for fans of epic fantasy or sprawling non-fiction. Take George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones or Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings — both easily exceed that limit. Even classics like Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, which runs nearly 33 hours, would be impossible to finish without spilling over into the next month's hours or purchasing a top-up — an option Spotify doesn't currently offer for titles already included in Premium.
To make matters more restrictive, Premium subscribers can't simply buy these books outright through Spotify. 'I scoured through Spotify's audiobook listings to find anything I could buy as a Premium subscriber and came up with nothing,' one user noted. This makes Spotify's approach feel more limiting when compared to services like Audible, which gives users one free audiobook per month to keep forever. Audible also frequently runs discounts, letting subscribers build a permanent library at a relatively low cost.
Despite this, Spotify's model does offer some benefits for authors. Reports suggest that Spotify's payouts to authors are better than what Audible provides. Unfortunately, the lack of a purchase option means subscribers have no direct way to support their favourite writers while staying within the app.
Currently, the new Audiobooks Plus add-ons are only available in select markets, including the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Netherlands. Pricing differs by region — in the UK, for example, both add-ons cost £8.99 (around $12), which could effectively double the price of an individual Premium subscription in the US.
Spotify says it plans to launch similar plans in the US soon. American listeners already have the option to purchase 10-hour audiobook top-ups for $12.99, but the new add-ons will let them automatically roll over into 30 hours each month without extra steps.
For casual listeners, Spotify's standard 15-hour allowance may still be a decent perk, especially if they also stream music on the platform. The company even offers a $9.99 audiobook-only plan with 15 hours of listening for those who get their music elsewhere.
A Spotify spokesperson did not comment on how many listeners actually hit the current 15-hour ceiling. For now, it seems Spotify's move is a step in the right direction for audiobook fans — just not quite far enough for those ready to lose themselves in the longest tales.
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