Bonnier latest trade publisher to add titles to Spotify Premium

Bonnier Books UK has become the latest trade publisher to put its audio titles on to Spotify’s premium streaming service. Titles coming to the platform include The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christie Lefteri, Parenting Hell by Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett, and Audacity by Katherine Ryan.

Bonnier joins US indie Blackstone Publishing in adding to the streaming service. Among the Blackstone titles to be made available on Spotify are Whoopi Goldberg’s new memoir, Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me; Hell Divers XI: Renegades by Nicholas Sansbury Smith; and Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time by Robert Downey Jr and Thomas Kostigen.  

Spotify is continuing to make headway with those publishers not yet signed up with the service, with royalties sent out to publishers who joined in the first wave now filtering down to agents and their authors. According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) latest StatShot report digital audio sales outpaced other consumer segments in the first quarter, growing 15.3% and coming in at $243.6m. Total revenues across all categories for the first quarter of the year in the US were up 0.2%, at $3bn. 

Duncan Bruce, director of Audiobook Partnerships & Licensing at Spotify, said: “Since launching Audiobooks in Premium, we’re seeing success with bestsellers, but back catalogue titles are also gaining popularity, with 14 of the top 50 Audiobooks in Premium titles having been released before 2020.”

Perminder Mann, c.e.o. of Bonnier Books UK, said: “One of our core values is that every reader matters, and we are always looking for new ways to broaden the reach of our books to introduce new audiences to our authors’ voices and perspectives. Spotify’s Audiobooks in Premium programme is another positive step forward for authors and publishers, and we look forward to Bonnier Books UK audiobooks being enjoyed by a new generation of audio listeners.”  

Anthony Goff, resident at Blackstone Publishing, added: “This relationship has been years in the making as I’ve been speaking with the great team at Spotify from their earliest days of entertaining a foray into audiobooks. Blackstone Publishing could not be happier to have them as a new partner as we continually look widen the scope of the market and get listening to books the mass appeal that it has always deserved.”