Spotify invests over $ 1 million to increase its non-English catalog

Spotify declared On Friday, it plans to invest $ 1 million – or approximately $ 1.1 million – to increase the production of audio books in languages ​​other than English, starting with French and Dutch.

Investment shows that Spotify is impatient for a less-Anglian titles in its limited library as it tries to compete with big players like Audible in the $ 8.7 billion global audio booksS

Adoption is especially slow in France and the Netherlands, which is why Spotify begins with these languages.

According to the company, less than 3% of French books are currently available in audio format, with only 20,000 audio books in France compared to about 750,000 physical titles. In the Netherlands, about 15,000 Dutch audio books are available from a 209,000 physical library.

The company launched His audio books in France and the Benelux region last October.

Spotify believes that slow acceptance may be due to high production costs, which can deter the publishers to convert their written works into audio formats.

Although the company stresses its commitment to working with human storytellers, Spotify recently partnered Eleven As a profitable decision to encourage authors to publish ARITED content AI. However, the use of AI story sparked concerns within the publishing community.