Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

With the goal of competing more effectively with music streaming providers and audiobook apps like Audible, Spotify announced that it’s expanding audiobook access to 750 in 180 markets worldwide, in 120 languages, far beyond the existing English-speaking regions.

The audio platform has more than 350,000 titles and is working with more than 300 publishers worldwide, including Planeta and Mondadori, to increase the number of titles available in different markets.

With a Premium subscription, users can listen to 12 hours of audiobooks in eligible countries

With an Audiobook+ stand-alone subscription, users get access to titles with a 15-hour allowance. Alternatively, users can buy individual titles directly.

Since its launch last year, Audiobook+ has gained over 1 million subscribers and has fetched over 100 million in annual recurring revenue for the platform.

In February, the company launched a “Page Match” feature, which lets users scan a page of a physical book and find the corresponding point in the audiobook to listen to. Since the launch, 1 million people have been using the feature monthly, the company noted.

Spotify said that over the last year, monthly audiobook listeners grew by 40% and listening hours increased by 30%.

This year, the company introduced Audiobook Charts to let people discover popular titles. It also launched an AI-powered tool that lets authors turn their books into audiobooks using models from ElevenLabs.

Plus, Spotify began experimenting with physical book sales through its audiobook platform in select markets such as the U.S. and the U.K.

IBL News | New York

As part of a multi-year partnership with Google, MrBeast, one of YouTube’s biggest creators, will promote Gemini, Google Health, and the Fitbit Air in his upcoming videos

The deal kicked off with a video — on September 5 — that featured the YouTube star turning to Gemini for wilderness survival advice. MrBeast and his crew were trying to survive some of the most extreme climates on Earth.

The team raced to navigate three of the planet’s most unforgiving landscapes — the jungle, the desert, and the Arctic — using Gemini to help them identify dangers, survive brutal weather changes, and stay one step ahead.

Google said Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson will also use a Fitbit Air in one of his upcoming challenges and appear in a Gemini campaign.

The deal comes a couple of months after MrBeast’s YouTube channel became the first to hit 500 million subscribers. YouTube has been offering prominent creators deals to keep their content exclusive to its site as more creators strike deals with Netflix.