Spotify has commenced the rollout of audiobooks to listeners in Nigeria from October 14, introducing a new subscription offering as the global streaming platform accelerates efforts to expand its audiobook service to more than 180 markets by the end of 2026.
The expansion, which will increase audiobook availability from 22 markets to more than 180, is expected to give more than 750 million people access to audiobooks through streaming or individual title purchases, according to the company.
In Nigeria, both free and Premium subscribers can access the service through Audiobooks+, a monthly add-on priced at ₦2,300 that provides 15 hours of audiobook listening per billing cycle. Users who exhaust their allowance can purchase an additional 10 hours for ₦2,700 or buy individual titles to retain.
The launch extends Spotify’s local offering beyond music and podcasts, positioning audiobooks as another category in its digital content business. The company is targeting everyday listening occasions, including commuters navigating traffic and consumers listening at home.
“Books change how we see the world, and the people in it. For a lot of people, audiobooks are how they find their way back to reading, on the commute, on a walk, or at the end of a long day,” said Owen Smith, Spotify’s vice-president of audiobooks.
He added that expanding availability to more than 180 markets would allow millions of additional listeners to discover audiobooks while enabling authors and publishers to reach new audiences.
Spotify’s Nigerian pricing structure combines a fixed monthly listening allowance with paid options for additional consumption, giving users the choice of subscribing for regular access or purchasing specific titles.
Only time spent actively listening counts towards the 15-hour monthly allowance, and unused hours reset at the end of each billing cycle. The structure provides a defined listening budget while allowing users to pay for additional hours when required.
The company is also offering features designed to make audiobooks more accessible across different reading and listening habits.
Its Page Match tool allows users to scan a book’s International Standard Book Number (ISBN) barcode and synchronise their position between a physical book, an e-book and its audio version. Spotify said more than one million readers have used the feature, which supports more than 30 languages.
Other features include a dedicated audiobook discovery hub, personalised recommendations based on users’ interests across music, podcasts and books, offline downloads, a sleep timer and synchronised listening progress across more than 2,000 supported devices.
Beyond consumer subscriptions, the rollout creates a potential distribution channel for Nigerian authors and publishers seeking audiences outside the domestic market.
Spotify said its audiobook partnerships are non-exclusive, allowing rights holders to distribute their content through other platforms while making their work available to Spotify listeners.
Through Spotify for Authors, local publishers and self-published writers in Nigeria can upload audiobooks, access listening insights and reach audiences across the company’s international markets.
The company said Nigeria’s audiobook catalogue would expand as additional partners join the platform and local authors upload their work.
Spotify’s expansion into Nigeria builds on its investment in audiobooks, which it introduced to Premium subscribers three years ago as part of efforts to strengthen its position in the book and publishing market.
The company reported that monthly audiobook listeners increased by nearly 40 per cent over the past year, while listening hours rose by more than 30 per cent. Its Audiobooks+ offering, launched just over a year ago, has grown to more than one million subscribers.
The expansion to more than 180 markets represents a significant increase in the service’s geographic reach and gives authors and publishers a potentially larger international distribution network.
