Spotify paid €117 million, or roughly $123 million USD, for Findaway, a platform that enables users to produce, distribute, and sell their own audiobooks. The infrastructure for what will eventually become the third pillar of Spotify’s business will be provided by Findaway. In November of last year, the streaming service first disclosed the acquisition.
In a presentation to investors last month, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek stated, “We believe that audiobooks, in their many varied forms, will be a significant opportunity. Expect us to play to win, just like we have in podcasting.
The purchase of Findaway by Spotify is comparable to its 2019 purchase of Anchor. Findaway, which has a similar focus to Anchor on DIY content, may introduce an entirely new class of artists to the streamer. Nir Zicherman, a co-founder of Anchor, appropriately oversees Spotify’s audiobook division.
- Discovering when your favorite musician is on tour is simpler with Spotify’s Live Event Feed.
- Even more posts from accounts you don’t follow will be displayed on Facebook and Instagram.
According to Ek on Wednesday, audiobook capability will be added to Spotify “very imminently.” According to executives, the service will function differently from the market leader, Amazon’s Audible. Subscribers to Audible pay $14.95 per month for one credit, which is good for one book. Although content and ad business head Dawn Ostroff hinted last month that there will be an ad-supported tier, it is unclear whether premium users will have unrestricted access to audiobooks.
Ek is confident that audiobooks will deliver the kind of earnings that investors are looking for, with profit margins north of 40 percent. With Findaway’s nine-figure price tag, hopefully he will be proven correct. Investors have been disappointed that the company’s big-money investments in podcasting have yet to pay off.
Spotify also revealed the price tag on a couple of other big acquisitions today. Podsights and Chartable cost the company a combined €83 million (around $94 million USD at the time), and Sonantic cost €91 million (around $96 million USD). No price tag yet for Heardle, though.
