Hello there, tech enthusiasts! Dive into the latest buzz around Spotify as it takes an exciting step in the world of audiobooks.

Spotify has officially announced its plan to invest €1 million, or around $1.1 million, to boost audiobook production in languages other than English. The company is starting with French and Dutch, targeting a market that has seen slow adoption rates.

It seems Spotify is keen to grow its library beyond the limited selection currently available, particularly since less than 3% of French-language titles are in audio format. To put it into perspective, France boasts merely 20,000 audiobooks compared to about 750,000 physical copies!

The Dutch market isn’t much better, with around 15,000 audiobooks available out of 209,000 physical titles. By focusing on these languages, Spotify aims to make a substantial impact in the audiobook sector, which is part of the booming $8.7 billion global market.

Despite the high costs of production often deterring publishers, Spotify is committed to working with human narrators. Additionally, they’ve teamed up with ElevenLabs to explore cost-effective AI-narrated options.

This move has sparked some concerns within the publishing community about the rise of AI narration, but Spotify is forging ahead, eager to support authors and publishers in this growing field.