Spotify, streaming music sensation, has started making free audiobooks available on the service.
The first (and, so far, only) free audiobook is, rather appropriately, Chris Anderson’s Free: The Economics of Abundance and Why Zero Pricing Is Changing the Face of Business. The book discusses the business model of giving away content and goods for free, and what effect it will have on the wider economy. The free audiobook, which runs to around 4 hours in total, is broken into 16 chapters, and is narrated by Chris Anderson
Spotify says it’s using Free as a test to gauge interest in audiobooks. “This is the first audiobook we’ve ever included in our catalogue,” the company claims on the Spotify blog. “We’re going to trial it, see what people think and who knows, maybe this is the start of something new for us…”
Spotify says it’s using Free as a test to gauge interest in audiobooks. “This is the first audiobook we’ve ever included in our catalogue,” the company claims on the Spotify blog. “We’re going to trial it, see what people think and who knows, maybe this is the start of something new for us…”
Spotify users can listen to Chris Anderson reading Free (complete book of 273 pages – about 90 000 words last about 3 hours)
I hope that in the future Spotify will have an option of speeding up listening of the audiobooks – a kind of speed reading of audiobooks.
I hope that in the future Spotify will have an option of speeding up listening of the audiobooks – a kind of speed reading of audiobooks.