Good news for people from all over the world who love to listen to audiobooks! As it turns out, Spotify has decided to expand their audiobook service to other countries as well, including New Zealand, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
This means that subscribers to the app can now get access to more than 300,000 audiobooks.
The expansion of the service is great news for many given the fact that until recently, only users in the United States had access to the audiobooks provided by Spotify so the expansion is definitely welcome.
Just keep in mind, however, that the audiobook service is not part of Spotify’s unlimited streaming service so if you are subscribed to a streaming plan, it does not mean you will also get access to the audiobooks automatically.
Those who do wish to check out audiobooks through the app will have to download and purchase each one they are interested in individually.
The service was originally launched in the US back in September but a month later, it ended up being pulled without a clear explanation.
While a reason was not given, there were many speculations going around, including one that it was related to the fact that Apple takes a percentage of anything that gets purchased through the App Store.
Sure enough, this has been a problem with the App Store for years and many users are getting more and more outspoken about it.
Of course, the App Store does provide a great portal for developers to share their creations but at the same time, a huge downside is the fact that the platform keeps no less than 30 percent of all that’s being sold through them.
Unfortunately, this means that when a developer makes a cool app and decides to sell it on the App Store, Apple will get a significant cut of the profit.
In order to avoid this issue, some developers have attempted to redirect their customers outside the App Store.
That being said, Spotify now sends customers to their online shop, allowing for users to buy audiobooks there and then listen to them directly through the app.
At this point in time, it is hard to say how well this new approach will work.
Either way, it’s no secret that many companies have been discussing Apple’s 30 percent fee policy throughout the years, some of them being more vocal than others.
Whether this will become a bigger problem in the long run or not, it remains to be seen.