Spotify now lets you stream narrated magazine articles, too

In Spotify’s rapidly evolving quest to become the home for all things audio, the company announced Tuesday that it will bring long-form magazine articles to its app. Articles will be available to premium subscribers as part of 15 hours of monthly audiobook listening time. Free users can choose to purchase standalone articles for $1.99.

Starting today, there will be more than 650 long-form magazine articles (available in English only) from publications like Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair and Pitchfork, the streaming service said. Spotify says the articles are produced in-house by its audiobook team and complement Spotify’s existing audio offerings, such as podcasts.

Spotify tells TechCrunch that narrated articles will use a mix of human and digital voice narration and that the portion of articles that use digital voice narration will be clearly labeled for users.

In addition to being another way to bring monetized audio to its app, Spotify believes adding articles could encourage users to try a different kind of listening beyond music, which could eventually lead them to try other forms of long-form listening, such as potentially more profitable audiobooks.

“By bringing shorter content into the mix, we are meeting audiences where they are to help build healthy listening habits, and ultimately increase engagement with books over time,” Colleen Prendergast, Head of Licensing at Spotify Audiobooks, noted in a blog post about the launch.

At present, Spotify offers audiobook listening hours to its paid subscribers as well as “top-up” hours when listening time runs out. There’s also a $9.99 per month Audiobook Access plan for Spotify free music listeners, and a $11.99 per month Audiobooks+ plan that doubles your listening hours.

The addition comes on the heels of a deluge of news from the streamer in recent weeks. This has led to the company making big leaps into the world of AI audio with new features like AI-generated podcasts, similar to the ones you can create with a search app like Google NotebookLM; Create AI-powered audiobooks for authors; Support for AI covers and remixes; And other non-AI features, such as fitness content.