Bloomsbury partners with Spotify

Bloomsbury has agreed an "important" content partnership with Spotify, which will see the music streaming service exclusively offer titles from the publisher's 33 1/3 series to listeners.

The 33 1/3 series consists of short books about popular music, focusing on a single album per book. With over 130 titles published in the series, it occupies a "unique place" in the world of music writing, and has inspired a cult following through its coverage of artists ranging from Björk to J Dilla to Merle Haggard, said the publisher.

"This partnership with Spotify is a natural fit between the books and the music they cover, and will help bring the series to a new, wider audience of listeners", said the publisher.

Existing titles will be made available on the Spotify service over the next 12 months, and then there will be an ongoing programme of new titles for the next decade. The first book to be made available from Spotify will be George Grella's Bitches Brew, about Miles Davis' "revolutionary" jazz album.

The publisher had no comment when asked about the partnership's business model and how authors will be remunerated. 

Nigel Newton, chief executive of  Bloomsbury, said: "This is an exciting opportunity for our authors to reach a whole new audience. For fifteen years the series has produced an amazing range of personal, experimental, and innovative music writing. I'm delighted that our partnership with Spotify will break new ground for the 33 1/3 series. It is one of a number of partnerships which Bloomsbury is successfully seeking out with the world's most ground-breaking companies to expand our digital offering."

Courtney Holt, vice president and head of Spotify Studios and Video, added: "As a die-hard music fan, I discovered the 33 1/3 series many years ago. When I first joined Spotify to think about spoken word and audio content, I knew this would be a perfect partner for Spotify. We look forward to bringing this amazing series to our global music-loving audience."