Spotify has launched Spotify for Authors, an analytics and promotion platform for its audiobook division, which currently hosts more than 300,000 titles. The platform, modeled after Spotify's existing tools for musicians and podcast creators, aims to provide publishers and authors with data-driven insights about their audiobook performance.
"We believe that one of the best ways to support authors and publishers is by giving them access to the right tools and data," said Owen Smith, VP of audiobooks product and technology at Spotify.
The platform offers publishers expanded catalog management capabilities beyond their current access, including detailed analytics about audience engagement and enhanced royalty reporting.
For authors invited by their publishers, the service provides demographic data, such as the age and gender of listeners, and access to promotional tools, such as redemption codes for sharing royalty-free copies with reviewers (subject to publisher approval) and one-click social media promotional tools.
The company has also begun a pilot program of author profile pages and author landing pages with a select number of writers. The former will feature biographical information about their backgrounds and works, and the latter will aggregate all of their works available on Spotify, making it easier to explore an author’s oeuvre and get news about new releases.
"This [Spotify for Authors] platform is unique for the industry because it is built to support any author or publisher—we're not gating any features or limiting them based on exclusivity,” Smith said. "We've worked closely with authors and publishers to develop Spotify for Authors, prioritizing what to build based on their feedback and needs."
Access to Spotify for Authors will be rolled out gradually, with publishers controlling author invitations to the system. Publishers and authors interested in learning more about platform access can discuss this with their Spotify partnerships representative.
