By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox
A common refrain in the publishing industry is that books are competing with (and often losing out to) so many other types of content for a reader’s attention.In order to connect with a reader, books need to meet a reader where they are. That is the stated goal of Spotify and the launch of their new feature, Page Match.
Launched to premium Spotify subscribers globally today, this new feature allows readers to seamlessly move between reading text and listening to an audiobook without losing their place in the book.
At the launch in New York City yesterday, Owen Smith, Global Head of Audiobooks at Spotify noted that “book lovers want more time and more seamless” engagement with books, which is what sparked the creation of Page Match.
How Page Match Works
Using the Page Match feature in the Spotify app, readers simply use their phone camera to scan the page of a printed book or ebook, and Page Match will recognize where in the book the reader has stopped and find the exact moment in the audiobook for the reader to continue listening to the story.
Page Match also does the reverse should you be listening to the audiobook and want to pick up the physical book and read. Simply scan the book and Page Match will instruct you to move forward or backward to find the place where the reader stopped listening.
Page Match is available only to premium Spotify subscribers on most English-language titles (approximately 500,000 books). Spotify plans to roll out to all audiobook users by February 23rd. No mention yet of expanding to other languages, but that is likely to come.
Page Match differs from Amazon’s Whispersync, which allows readers to go between the ebook on the Kindle and an audiobook on Audible, by not being confined to a single ecosystem – users can scan an ebook on any device as well as print books.
As Niamh Parsley, Head of Product & Design, Audiobooks for Spotify noted, this also “hasn’t ever been done before with physical books.”
At the launch, publishers and authors seemed enthusiastic about the feature.
Chris Lynch, EVP & Publisher at Simon & Schuster Audio, noted that anything that gets people to read or listen was a positive.
Internationally renowned and bestselling author Harlan Coben was interviewed on stage at the launch and noted that he’s seen new readers over the last several books largely through audiobooks. Though he stated he was a “content guy” and leaves it up to others to figure out how to get books to readers and listeners, but he saw this as a positive move for the industry and the world.
“Brain wave studies show that if you read 5 minutes a day, it improves your health and your mood.”
Spotify Supports Independent Bookstores
In addition to the launch of Page Match, Spotify also announced a partnership with Bookshop.org to create a way for Spotify listeners to buy books directly through Bookshop.org.
On the audiobook page in Spotify, there will be an option to “Try out the book” which will lead users to buy the book on Bookshop.org for users in the two markets in which the company operates – the United States and the United Kingdom.
Spotify users can select a specific an independent bookstore on the site to support directly with the sale or simply buy the book and the proceeds from their sale go into the Bookshop.org earnings pool which is divided up and distributed to participating bookstores each month.
On the heels of yesterday’s announcement of Bookshop.org’s partnership with Draft2Digital to sell self-published books, Bookshop.org is starting the year with some big moves to help make independent bookstores more competitive in the marketplace.
“Reading is a civic good,” said Andy Hunter, CEO of Bookshop. “We need a diverse marketplace. I am all for anything that grows the slice of the pie.”
With half of Spotify’s listeners under the age of 35, both announcements by Spotify may continue to herald an interesting trend in the industry – the return to print books among younger readers.