Spotify has announced that it is expanding its audiobook business and is starting to sell physical books. Starting this summer, users in the US and UK will be able to buy printed copies of their favorite audiobooks directly from the app. The move marks Spotify’s move beyond a digital-only platform to compete with players like Amazon and Barnes & Noble in the book market.
The company also introduced a new feature called “Page Match,” which allows readers to scan a page of a book with their phone’s camera and instantly jump to that section in an audiobook. The “Audiobook Recaps” feature, previously available only for iOS, will also come to Android devices in the summer.
Spotify is partnering with Bookshop.org to sell physical books, which will help support local independent bookstores. The platform currently has more than 500,000 audiobooks.
