If you have ever finished an audiobook and wished you owned the book, Spotify has an easy solution. The company now lets you buy physical books directly from its app in the U.S. and the U.K.
How to buy physical books in the Spotify app?
Spotify has partnered with Bookshop for the sale of paper books. When you browse an audiobook on Spotify, you will now see an option to buy a copy. Once you tap it, Spotify redirects you to Bookshop’s website to complete the purchase.
This means Spotify does not process payments itself. Instead, it acts as a discovery layer that connects you to independent bookstores through Bookshop’s network.
The feature is currently limited to users in the U.S. and the U.K. For now, it works alongside audiobook listings, so you can easily switch from listening to owning a physical copy.
What else is new in Spotify audiobooks?
Spotify is also expanding its audiobook experience in other ways. The company has introduced Audiobook Charts that highlight top titles across genres. This gives you a better sense of what is trending, similar to how music charts work on the platform.
The company is also rolling out the Audiobook Recap feature, which gives you short audio summaries based on where you last stopped listening. These are designed to refresh your memory of the story so far, making it easier to jump back in without feeling lost.
Last February, Spotify introduced the Page Match feature, which lets you scan a page from a physical book and continue from the same spot in the audiobook. It now supports more than 30 additional languages, including French, German, and Swedish.
Why this matters
Spotify is slowly turning itself into a one-stop shop for stories. You can discover a title, listen to it, jump between formats, and even buy the physical book without starting over elsewhere. It still feels unexpected for a platform known for music, but once you use these features, you will come to appreciate their usefulness.