Spotify's audiobooks reached South Africa in February, bundled into a subscription tier called Premium Platinum with 12 hours of listening a month. On Wednesday, at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Spotify said it will take audiobooks from the 22 markets that have them today, South Africa among them, to over 180 before 2026 is out.
Close to fifty African markets are on that list, South Africa included, from Nigeria and Kenya to Zambia. Spotify says more than 750 million people will soon be able to stream or buy books in the app, from a catalogue of more than 350,000 titles in over 120 languages, with new Spanish, Portuguese and Italian collections among them.
Pay extra, or buy the book
How people get in depends on where they live. In markets such as Spain, Brazil and Mexico, Premium subscribers get a monthly allowance of audiobook hours as part of the plan. Across Africa and Asia the main route is Audiobooks+, an add-on any listener can bolt onto their plan for extra hours each month, paid for on top. Anyone can also buy a single title outright and keep it. Spotify gave no prices, saying they vary by market.
That add-on is already a real business. Spotify says Audiobooks+ has passed one million subscribers in just over a year since launch, and is bringing in more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue, the yearly value of those subscriptions at their current run.
What listeners here already have
For South Africans, the existing deal stands: 12 hours a month on Premium Platinum, with a 10-hour top-up for anyone who runs out. The catalogue already carries local writing, such as Lauren Beukes's The Shining Girls, alongside international bestsellers.
Spotify's pitch is about habit as much as catalogue. Owen Smith, its vice-president of audiobooks, said that for a lot of people audiobooks are how they find their way back to reading, "on the commute, on a walk, or at the end of a long day". Monthly audiobook listeners grew nearly 40% over the past year, and hours listened rose by more than 30%.
Publishers Weekly has dates for the first markets in Europe and Latin America. For Africa, so far, there is only "through the end of 2026".
