YouTube is in talks with publishers to add audiobooks to its Premium subscription, the Wall Street Journal reports. This could be officially announced next year, but Google has yet to comment. Unlike Google Play Store's 2018 audiobook service, which requires individual purchases, YouTube will bundle audiobooks with its ad-free Premium plan.
This move would boost Premium's appeal over the cheaper Premium Lite tier and offset recent price hikes. YouTube Music already offers podcast support with ad-free offline listening via Premium, while Premium Lite excludes music but keeps ad-free podcasts. Adding audiobooks would put YouTube in direct competition with Spotify, which launched an audiobook-only tier and expanded its service to over 180 markets earlier this year.
Spotify's Page Match feature lets users switch from physical to digital books by photographing their page.
Source: GSMArena · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing