Here are the audiobooks that Spotify hosts and how you can listen to them for free.
Does Spotify Have Audiobooks?
Yes, Spotify has audiobooks. While Spotify originally launched as a way to listen to music, artists and labels have long used it as a way to host free audiobooks.
In January 2021, Spotify began releasing its own original audiobooks that are exclusive to the platform.
All of these audiobooks are free for every Spotify member, no matter your plan, though Premium subscribers can listen to them without ads.
What Audiobooks Are Available on Spotify?
Spotify hosts audiobooks that other people have made and audiobooks that are exclusive and original to the platform.
Examples of audiobooks created by others include The Hunger Games, The Jungle Book, Little Women, The Great Gatsby, and more. These are all produced by different companies, read by different people, and are free to listen to.
That said, you won’t find every audiobook on Spotify—far from it. If you’re a real audiobook fiend, you’d get more value from an Audible subscription.
Spotify also has its own audiobooks, produced especially for the service. Spotify’s first audiobook partnership came in May 2020, with the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone as read by famous names like Eddie Redmayne and Dakota Fanning. As this was licensed content, it was only available for a limited amount of time.
In January 2021, Spotify released a range of original audiobooks. Currently, these are made up of classic public domain works, meaning Spotify didn’t have to pay to license the work.
At the time of writing, Spotify has these original audiobooks:
Cane by Jean Toomer; read by Audra McDonald Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; read by David Dobrik Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; read by James Langton Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë; read by Sarah Coombs Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass; read by Forest Whitaker Passing by Nella Larsen; read by Bahni Turpin Persuasion by Jane Austen; read by Cynthia Erivo The Awakening by Kate Chopin; read by Hilary Swank The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane; read by Santino Fontana
How to Listen to Audiobooks on Spotify
Currently, Spotify doesn’t have a menu section especially for audiobooks, like it does for music or podcasts. It’s likely that this will change in the future, if Spotify’s audiobooks are successful.
Instead, the best way to find an audiobook is to search for the name of the novel. This should surface the audiobook as the Top Result.
You can also search for the novelist or narrator, but you might have to look further down in the Podcasts & Shows category to find the audiobook. If the audiobook isn’t a Spotify original, it might instead be categorized within something else like Albums.
While Spotify’s original audiobooks are available globally, it only advertises them to English-speaking countries. This means that if you’re somewhere like the UK, US, or Australia, you might be able to go to the Home tab on Spotify and see the Audiobooks row.
Once you’ve found the audiobook you want to listen to, you can interact with it like you would anything else on Spotify. Each chapter is usually available as an individual track. If you’re a Spotify Premium member, you can download the audiobook for offline listening.
Listen to More Free Audiobooks
Spotify’s foray into audiobooks is an exciting one, adding another way of listening to audiobooks for free. However, the streaming service is far from the only place where you can listen to free audiobooks. There are loads of services out there that can save you the time reading and get stories delivered straight to your ears.
