Spotify announced plans to acquire audiobooks company Findaway in November last year, but it’s taken seven months to actually close the deal.
Still, that happened this week, with Spotify intent on using its new subsidiary to spearhead its attempt to take on the dominant player in audiobooks: Amazon’s Audible.
It’s quite a task, given the deals in place between the latter company and book publishers, which are likely to head off any efforts to compete via exclusivity. However, Spotify appears to be looking in another direction: towards independent, self-publishing authors.
“In addition to offering the largest catalog of distributed titles, Findaway has actively worked to democratize audiobooks through leading technology tools that independent authors can use to publish and distribute their stories to new audiences,” said Spotify’s blog post yesterday.
“We plan on accelerating the growth of these tools, with the goal of scaling and expanding the audiobooks market overall.”
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