Would you listen to magazine articles on Spotify? The streaming platform certainly hopes so, as it’s launching a new format for narrated long-form articles, alongside its usual array of music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Starting today, more than 650 articles from publications including Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair, and Pitchfork will be available in English in regions where Spotify’s audiobooks are available.
The narrated articles are all under two hours long, and available under the monthly audiobook allowance for Premium users. Spotify says that free users who don’t pay for a subscription can also “purchase articles individually for $1.99,” though it isn’t clear if that’s a blanket fee per article, or if $1.99 will get you an articles-only subscription. We’ve reached out to Spotify to clarify.
“With Articles, we’re introducing long-form journalism in audio as a natural extension of the music, podcasts, and audiobooks people already come to Spotify for, focused on topics we know they love,” Colleen Prendergast, Spotify Audiobooks licensing lead, said in a statement. “By bringing shorter form content into the mix, we’re meeting audiences where they are to help build healthy listening habits, ultimately growing engagement with books over time.”
This is Spotify’s latest sidequest outside of traditional music streaming, having also recently launched a slurry of AI tools for generating daily podcasts, making audiobook playlists, and remixing existing songs from artists represented by Universal Music Group. Spotify’s announcement doesn’t mention whether these articles are narrated by AI tools, noting only that they’re produced by the in-house Spotify Audiobooks team. Spotify declined to speak on the record about any AI use for article narration when we reached out to clarify.