Spotify is making a bold leap beyond streaming. The audio platform just announced it's entering the physical book market, letting U.S. and UK users buy print copies directly through the app starting this spring. The move puts Spotify in direct competition with Amazon and Barnes & Noble while expanding its audiobook business that's already hooked more than half of its 281 million premium subscribers. The company's also rolling out Page Match, a computer vision tool that lets readers scan any page to instantly jump to that exact spot in the audiobook version.
Spotify is no longer content being just a streaming service. The company announced Thursday it's diving headfirst into physical book sales, a surprising pivot that puts it on a collision course with retail giants like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Starting this spring, Spotify users in the U.S. and UK will see an "Add to your bookshelf at home" button pop up on audiobook pages. Click it, and you're whisked to Bookshop.org, an online marketplace that funnels profits back to independent bookstores. It's an interesting alliance that gives Spotify instant access to physical inventory without building its own e-commerce infrastructure, while Bookshop.org handles pricing, shipping, and logistics according to Spotify's announcement.
The timing is strategic. Just weeks after hitting users with another price increase, Spotify is sweetening the deal with features that blur the line between physical and digital reading. The headline addition is Page Match, a computer vision tool that premium subscribers can access now, with a full rollout to all audiobook users by late February.
Here's how it works: open a physical book, scan any page with your phone camera, and Spotify's combination of in-house and third-party image recognition technology pinpoints exactly where you are in the story. Tap "Scan to Listen" and the audiobook picks up at that precise moment. Want to switch back? Hit "Scan to Read" and you're oriented again. first spotted hints of the feature last month, but now it's official for Spotify's catalog of 500,000-plus English-language titles.
