Jakarta - Spotify is making a splash outside its core business. The Swedish music streaming platform announced that it will start selling physical books directly through its application, through a partnership with online book retailer Bookshop.org.
Citing a Reuters report, Thursday, February 5, this move is an unexpected expansion for Spotify, which has been known for its music, podcast, and audiobook services. This sale of physical books marks Spotify's attempt to expand its content ecosystem while competing more closely with technology giants such as Apple and Amazon.
Spotify said the physical book purchase feature will begin to be launched gradually in the spring of this year for users in the United States and the United Kingdom. In this cooperation, Bookshop.org will handle the aspects of price, stock, to the delivery of books, while Spotify is the main gateway for users.
Spotify's move comes at a time when the physical book industry is slowing down. Many readers are now turning to e-books and various digital reading sources on the internet. Last year, News Corp, the owner of HarperCollins publishers, revealed that book orders from readers and retailers had begun to slow down. In fact, the library book distributor, which is almost 200 years old, Baker & Taylor, stopped its operations in January 2026.
Even so, Spotify seems confident. Since launching its audiobook service two years ago, the Audiobooks in Premium feature has been available in 22 global markets. Its English book catalog now reaches more than 500,000 titles.
Spotify claims that the growth of audiobooks is quite significant. The number of new listeners increased by 36 percent, while total listening hours increased by 37 percent.
Not only selling physical books, Spotify also introduced a new feature called Page Match. This feature is designed to bridge the reading and listening experience.
"Users can scan a page from a printed book or e-book using the camera in the Spotify app to instantly jump to the same section in the audiobook," Spotify said in a statement. "Users can also re-scan later to find the exact page they last stopped reading."
Spotify said Page Match will be available at launch for most English-language audiobook titles, and is targeted to be fully available to all audiobook users by February 23.
On the other hand, Spotify also recently raised the price of its monthly Premium subscription by 1 US dollar to 12.99 US dollars in the United States, Estonia, and Latvia. This price increase is part of the company's strategy to support the expansion of new features and content.
By selling physical books, strengthening audiobooks, and introducing features that combine reading and listening, Spotify is increasingly showing its ambition to become a broader audio content and literacy platform, not just a music streaming service.
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