The music streaming giant Spotify has recently entered the Audiobooks market. This has offered an opportunity for the audiobook lovers an alternative to Audible. Spotify is expected to add more zeal to the audiobook genre, thanks to its experience in the audio streaming service.
We thought of making a comparison between Audible and Spotify. That way, you will be able to make the right choice between Audible and Spotify based on your specific requirements.
Spotify Audiobook vs Audible – An Overview
| Audible | Spotify Premium | |
| Pricing Plans | Basic plan – $7.95 per month. | The basic plan – Spotify Premium at $10.99 per month. |
| Sound quality | Better sound quality than Spotify Premium. | It is of lower quality than Audible. |
| Accessibility features | Screen Reader Support, Enhanced Narration, Adjustable Speed, Immersion Reading, No captions, Subtitles, Download and Offline Listening | Large Font and High Contrast Text, Voice Control, Lyrics, and Synchronized Text, Personalized recommendations for playlists, Offline Listening |
| User experience | An extensive collection of audiobooks. An exceptional library, partnership with publishers and narrators | Excellent user experience. Create personalized playlists, discover new artists, follow your favorite podcasts, and explore curated content |
| Compatibility and syncing | Support for multiple devices. Smooth synchronizing of progress across all devices. | Multi-device syncing feature
Support for smartphone, tablet, or computer. |
| Library size | More than 475,000 audiobook titles | More than 300,000 audiobook titles |
| Content Variety | A wider selection of audiobooks than Spotify Premium. | Less selection of audiobooks. More selection of music and podcasts |
| Membership Benefits | Monthly credits, discounts, and exclusives. | Ad-free audiobook streaming podcast access. |
Spotify offers you a limited collection of audiobooks. It offers you audio content in the form of podcasts, albums, and similar other content. You need to pay for the audiobooks to unlock and watch them. You can listen to audiobooks on Spotify with ads for free (when available) or opt for a Premium subscription.
Audible has been a clear leader when it comes to the audiobooks. It has a huge collection of audiobooks. It has been the largest producer of audiobooks as well. Owned by Amazon, it offers you a wide range of audiobook titles across several genres. You can have access to membership subscriptions and discounts on select audiobooks.
Prime Features on Spotify and Audible
To have a clear understanding of Spotify and Audible, it is a good idea to go through the best features offered by the two Audiobook services.
Top Features on Audible
Here are the prime features offered by Audible:
- An extensive library of content: You get an excellent collection of titles, including bestsellers, classics, new releases, and other content. It also offers you content across multiple genres such as fiction, romance, self-help, and business.
- Audible originals: It offers Audible originals that are not available on any other platform.
- Audiobook exchange: You can exchange your purchase with any other title if you are not satisfied with your purchase.
- WhisperSync for Voice: You can read a Kindle eBook and switch to its Audiobook version.
- Sleep Timer: This feature can be very handy for bedtime listening.
- Adjustable playback speed: You can choose a variable playback speed between 0.5x to3x.
- Offline listening: You can download the titles for offline listening
- Easy chapter navigation: Proper labeling and controls provide you with an easy navigation of the chapters.
Prime features on Spotify Audiobooks
The prominent factors offered by Spotify audiobooks include:
- A diverse library: The platform offers a diverse library across multiple genres.
- Curated playlist: You can easily create playlists and share them
- Discover weekly and release radar: These features help you find new tracks based on your listening habits.
- Offline listening: This feature will help you with an easy offline playback option.
- Adjustable playback quality: You can adjust the playback quality based on your preferences and bandwidth settings
- Multi-device sync – You can adjust your playback across multiple devices seamlessly
- Sleep Timer: The feature is an excellent option for bedtime listening
Audible vs Spotify – Featurewise comparison
Let us check out a featurewise comparison of the two competing audiobook streaming services.
The Audiobook Collection
Audible has a huge collection of audiobooks. It includes more than 425,000 books you can listen to. They also produce audiobooks of their own. You can find a wide range of topics and genres including bestsellers.
Spotify has just entered the audiobook market. That makes it host only a limited selection of genres.
Membership Options
Both Audible and Spotify offer a 30-day trial period. Spotify lets you access audiobooks with ads for free or opt for a subscription plan. This is exactly similar to their music streaming service. Audible, on the other hand, offers subscription plans to access the audiobook content. They also offer you discounted pricing on audiobooks.
Audible comes with a Plus plan costing $7.95 per month and a Premium Plus plan costing $ 14.95 per month. The Plus plan comes with a rotating library of audiobooks. The Premium Plus plan offers offers this feature, but also offers you a credit per month for any audiobook.
The Spotify premium plan begins at $9.99 per month. The Audible vs Spotify audiobook cost is almost on a similar level.
Audio Quality
Both services offer an exceptional audio quality. But, the audio quality on Audible is quite professional as it is a professional producer and retailer of audiobooks. You can be assured of a 3D audio experience with Audible.
The audio quality on Spotify may not be in tune with that on Audible. But, still, you can be assured of a good playback quality.
Device Compatibility
Both Audible and Spotify support a wide range of devices. You can access them on web portals, Windows, Mac, iOS devices, Android, smart TVs, smart speakers, and many more other devices.
You can even download the audiobooks for offline listening. However, you cannot transfer Spotify audiobooks to Audials and vice versa. The audiobook files are DRM protected and can only be accessed on the respective platforms.
Other Features
Audible offers the WhisperSync feature for Voice. You will be able to switch between listening and reading a book. This will help you listen to read the audiobooks at the exact you left it previously.
Spotify offers a Speed Listen feature where you can listen to an audiobook at a faster rate. That apart, it also offers the features like social sharing, creating playlists, and so on.
Do I Need Audible If I Have Spotify?
Not necessarily. However, whether you are happy with Spotify or need Audible would largely be dependent on your individual requirements. It can depend on your listening habits and requirements.
Spotify can be the best choice if you tend to listen to audiobooks only occasionally. It has a limited audiobook collection. At least as of now. The platform has entered the audiobook platform only recently. It may have the additional audiobooks later on.
Audible, on the other hand, is a service focused on audiobooks. It offers you audiobooks in the ownership model. It should be a great choice for the video listeners.
Why Are Spotify Audiobooks So Expensive?
The primary reason for the higher cost of audiobooks on Spotify has more to do with the supply and demand structure. The music streaming on Spotify has an unlimited supply. This is not the case with audiobooks.
The audiobooks are quite scarce and this increases their per-unit value. That is exactly why it is more expensive to listen to audiobooks on Spotify as opposed to music streaming. The number of audiobooks available on Spotify today is 200,000 as of now. However, it may not stay that way for long. We do expect more audiobooks to be made available on Spotify gradually. This may reduce the pricing gradually.
Audible vs Spotify Audiobooks Pros and Cons
Having gone through the different options and features offered by the audiobooks feature on both Spotify and Audible, let us explore the Pros and Cons of the two services.
Spotify
- A very effective and cheaper pricing
- A good number of recent releases
- An excellent browsing speed
- A bad interface
- Monthly listening limit
Audible
- An extensive audiobook library
- High-quality production
- Ownership of audiobooks purchased
- Can be costly if you are a casual listener.
- Focussed only on audiobooks, no music streaming allowed.
What is Spotify Audiobook Limit?
Spotify Premium offers you a limit of 15 hours of audiobook streaming. That would mean you will need to wait for the next month once you have exhausted the 15 hours of listening in a month.
Please note that the limit is applicable only to audiobook streaming, but not applicable to music streaming.
Audible vs Spotify Audiobooks – Which One is Better?
It will be dependent on the number of audiobooks you read per month. If you listen to a couple of audiobooks per month and are more interested in music streaming, Spotify should be your preferred option. However, in case you are a voracious listener of audiobooks across multiple genres, we recommend you choose Audible.
Essentially, Audible is the best source for a host of audiobook features. Spotify is the right one if you are looking to explore a little of audiobooks in addition to music streaming.
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