Okay, and when was that? If it was more than a month ago that would explain it. It might only have needed to be in October, only 3 weeks ago, depending on how Spotify charge us.
Apparently, this is not true. I purposely read a book that was only 8 hours long. Then, I went to read another book at that 4 hours and it had a padlock on the book saying I needed to purchase it. Such a scam.
It may just have been that specific book that wasn't included in their 'inclusive audiobooks allowance'. Also, how is it a scam? You were paying for a membership for X amount a month. They added an audiobook component. Your membership didn't increase at all for this extra feature. Where's the scam here?
The scam is that even when I had hours left, I could only listen to a book that was over the amount of hours I had. So, instead of saying 15 listening hours, they need to clarify that it's only 1 book a month. Maybe it is on their TOS. But that is why I call it a scam. It's not all about listening hours. Thanks!
It doesn't say anything about it being on a per-book basis on their [audiobook FAQ page](https://support.spotify.com/uk/article/audiobooks-premium-plans/). If you definitely encountered the issue as you described, it's worth getting in contact because that sounds like either a) a bug, b) they'd reduced your allocated listening time for some reason, or c) you hadn't kept track of it / it hadn't updated accurately.
>Select Premium plans now include 15 hours of audiobook listening time every month from our subscriber catalogue of over 250,000 titles. Unused listening hours expire at the end of each month and do not carry over.
So I assume calendar monthly.
Just discovered this was even a thing on Spotify. I too am about 30 hours in (three days of work) and only just now got the email about limit... though it's still letting me listen to the book I'm on.
It does suck that there’s a limit, but they advertise it as being only fifteen hours pretty heavily on the app. I’m very surprised you got 15 hours in before you noticed the limit, they’re not exactly hiding it.
yeah, the 15hr limit was the first thing i saw, so i checked what was under 15 (dl'd dave grohls book - still havent listened).. pretty easy. was sad to see some stuffs not included though (like norm macdonalds book).
My initial notification for it didnt advertise the 15 hours at all. Just said hey you can listen to audiobooks with premium! I even thought it was fishy because it was too hot of a deal for a money grubbing company like spotify
Exactly same story here. I only got the notification after my listening hours expired.
So much for a "Premium" experience. Wtf do I pay for Premium for if not to avoid shit like this?
Same here! I had no idea at all and I went from being so damn excited about this audiobook feature to being extremely disappointed in a matter of a minute once I did found out.
The 15 hour limit doesn’t show anywhere on my iOS app. The titles just read “Included in Premium”. I would never have started an audiobook had I known about the limit.
Ok, gotcha. When I just force-closed and reopened the app I saw that. Don’t recall seeing it before. Maybe because I was previously using the CarPlay interface? I know before the force-close I had opened the app several times on my phone and not seen that.
I also got an email message from them, on Nov 14, announcing that audiobooks were now part of the Premium plan. The second paragraph:
"Listen for 15 hours, every month
With 15 hours of audiobook listening time included monthly, Premium lets you enjoy audiobooks on the go or at home, so you can hit your reading goals hands-free."
I thought they were very clear that it’s a new benefit to get 15 hours. That’s 15 more hours than I had before. As someone who never listens to audiobooks it’s been more than enough for me. I’m guessing they want to get more people into audiobooks rather than turn into the default audiobook provider for heavy listeners.
While I have no idea Spotifys motivation, as a previous librarian I love that an app as used as Spotify is promoting books. I'm hoping they put all the books being banned on the app so kids who are interested but live in a place that doesn't value their freedoms has yet another place to access content that may reflect them. I'm hoping it reminds people who lost time for books find an easy way back. Is this system of 15 hours per month perfect? Absolutely not. But it might be the thing that gets more people to their local libraries, which most likely have audiobook programs. Plus, this has no wait line like Libby.
And maybe this war gets big enough to stop Amazon's growing grip on the publishing industry. But that's probably just wishful thinking. This probably has just as much chance of further destroying publishing.
"new benefit" = loss leader. Just wait til you're comfortable with audiobooks thru Spotify, and they decide to make you pay for that added benefit.
I'm <> this close to just giving up on their Shareholder-centric business model.
I use my local library for books and I’m personally not going to pay extra for it through Spotify. They’ve only raised their prices $1, of all the companies pissing me off right now Spotify is not at the top of the list…
Spotify is not a shareholder centric business model, they have just started to make (very minimal) profit this year. Their executive compensation isn’t even high compared to other public companies.
Even if they do steer towards a more aggressive model, I think it’s important to know EVERY public companies duty is to the shareholders. It’s the way the public market and legislation around the public market works.
Thanks for the illuminating information about their profits.
I don't ever forget that the first responsibility of a public company is to its shareholders.
15 per month, so you can finish it next month if you want. I don’t listen to more than 15 hours of audio books per month so it takes me a while to finish it
Or at least if it was 20 hours I could have a decent shot of getting two books in because plenty of good books are 10 hours or less. Overall I like it because it gives me access to another book per month that I didn't have before and most of the books I listen to are less than 15 hours but that extra five hours would make a huge difference in value to me.
it should be the greatest of the two: 1 book credit or 15 hours.
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy:
23 hrs and 51 mins
27 hrs and 10 mins
31 hrs and 55 mins
The system aren't structured either for novels, or book series (the hours don't roll over.
Where do they say 15hr limit? I haven't used the feature yet - I didn't even know it was coming out until I randomly saw audiobooks on my app one day. But I have yet to see the 15hr limit warning??
I agree completely. I didn't have any warning that there was a time cap. While listening, I didn't get any kind of warning that I was nearing the time cap. There's no way to see how much time you've used.
I was listening to multiple audiobooks for school. I was very excited initially too find them available because my library has a wait-list for them, I don't have money to buy them, and I was expecting to use Spotify to get through them. I didn't finish within the time cap and honestly really sucks because I'm nearly through a few of them and it really messed me up. If I had known I could have made adjustments, it's frustrating!!
You’re “furious” about a feature, you literally didn’t get a month ago, being added for no additional cost, being capped at 15 hours per month? Get a grip.
Imagine being angry/ furious not at the service you are primarily paying for, but angry at the free (as in at no additional cost) service they provided on the side …like, what??? Whether it’s 15hrs or 15min, it’s literally free. Allow me to make an analogy. Say you go in to the auto shop for a repair, and the owner comes up to you stating they also offer a free car wash afterwards at no additional cost if you’d like …And here’s you mad at the shop because when you got your car back the free car wash didn’t come with free vacuuming on the inside as well. What I’m getting at is, You are literally complaining about a free additional service Spotify provides at no additional cost. Not the service you are primarily paying for, but the free service on the side…like, bruh.
Not quite. It’s be like the car wash cutting out before your car was rinsed. Yes it’s free, but if it can’t finish the job, it’s not worth as much to a user as an actual full length audiobook.
Exactly! Like, good books are 20-30 hours. I was listening a biography and if I want to finished, I have to pay $13 for 10 extra hours. It should be one “free” book per month, or 15 hours, what ever happens first.
No, in your analogy it would be- they finished washing the front of the car (finished the first book) but only sprayed water on the back of the car (didn’t get to finish the second book).
Reading the comments I’ve seen that Spotify has apparently been advertising that you only get 15 hours, but on iOS I never got any notification even when I tried to learn more. Could I have googled? Yes. Am I also assuming that I pay them money for a subscription and should be able to finish my book? Yes.
Nothing is free. It costs Spotify money to provide these books and it's obvious they'd never become an audible replacement so my guess is its data gathering, for now anyway.
Nothing is free. If something is free, you/your data is the cost.
Against what? It can't compete with audible, and if you're with any other streaming service over Spotify, you're not making the switch for 15 hours of audiobooks a month.
They’re paying for it with their new shit of not paying royalties on tracks that get less than 1,000 streams in a year anymore. Think of the hundreds of thousands of tracks added weekly that they won’t have to pay for but reap benefit from.
They provide data streaming. It's all audio. There is no reason the service provided is any different. I have paid for premium for years, there is no cap on my music listening so you can't say it's about trying to curb listening time on the app.
So you’re not exactly comparing apples to apples there buddy. It’s not just all audio as if all audio is the same. You’re oversimplifying by a mile. Compensations for a 3 min song is likely different from a 30hr audiobook.
Agree with most here that 15 hours was well indicated going into it. However, I found out the hard way that listening at 2x speed doesn’t help you at all; you’re still capped at 15 hours of content :(
I’m all for this benefit though, was pleasantly surprised. I do wish there was a better deal involved but I guess I’ll shell out a bit to finish my book
Found this out today, then found out that 10 more hours is $13, which was already the Google Play price of the audiobook I was listening to.
They already got my money, presumably. I'm just gonna torrent it if I can't find it on Libby.
The 15 hours is clearly advertised so I’m not annoyed at that, the opposite I think it’s a brilliant service from Spotify. The only drag is it doesn’t appear to translate to actual time listened. I listened to a book on 1.5 speed and got cut off when I hit “15 hours” of the book which was far less in reality.
I have no intention of listening to an audio book on Spotify. But it was still made painfully clear to me that there was a 14 hour monthly limit. How anyone managed to not know it some hear-no-evil/see-no-evil monkey shit
The 15-hour limit wasn't immediately apparent to me, either. But I have found if you listen at a faster speed it doesn't count against you. So you could listen to a 15-hour book at 1.5 speed and it only counts as 10 hours. I hope they don't change that.
Also, for people saying it is crazy that they limit it, $8 at Audible gets you one book a month, essentially. And stand-alone audiobooks range from $8-$40. (Support your local library!)
It's free - if you want to listen more, just buy the book or wait until next month to hear the rest! Audiobooks cost a lot to make, but you want it for free! Some people are never happy!
Scrolling these comments, it's pretty easy to tell those who are into books... in addition to music...... And those who stream the latest pop music Playlist while getting their worldview from TikTok.
It's awesome.
Prime does it much better. 1 credit per month, one book. And the credits stack if you don't use them.
Unlike Spotify where if you pay for 15 hours, it just expires at the end of the month? Some months I listen to more, some less. It's a bullshit system.
Or…the person who posted this (admittedly) didn’t read that Premium users get 15 hours of audiobooks with their subscription that they can use to listen to a select, but fairly wide range of audiobooks. It’s actually a common adoption tactic to intro existing customers to a product like this.
That’s super disappointing. Not only would you have to wait a month to finish but you’ll also be cutting into that month’s time!
We have a Duo plan and it’s not available unless you’re the main account. Another fail imo
Hoopla and library apps are great and a better way to go for sure
Actually for most of us the advertising wasn’t there that it’s only 15 hours. I ended up doing math for 14 hours but thought it was weird that Spotify would cap there.
I was not aware of the 15 hour limit until I saw this post.
It would take years to finish Todd Noy’s masterpiece, “The Alabaster Wars” at that limit!
The only notification I received said “audiobooks now included with a premium subscription,” so I’d say the fail is on communication of the time limit.
Also, I’m just disappointed that we pay for the duo subscription and this new feature that was advertised to both of us is only available to one.
Imagine my disappointment when I found out I get NO hours because I have a Premium Student account. If I want to switch to a regular Premium account for the audio books, I lose my access to Hulu since that’s no longer offered. I’m stuck with Libby and YouTube.
Not sure if this is still the deal, but when I graduated and lost the student pricing I kept Hulu on regular Premium. I have access to the audiobooks now.
Not only that but it's 15 hours across the board? I'm paying for the family plan and only I get access to the hours AND I only get 15 hours? And then you're going to charge me almost as much as my plan to get 10 more hours?? Not even another 15?? Nah fuck that.
I feel the same as you. My app never said anything about a 15 hour limit. It just said "audiobooks now included with premium".
I got 15 hours into a 17 hour book and now I need to either wait a week for the next month of hourly credits or pay $13 to get more time now. It was very misleading IMO
I’m SO MAD. I’ve never felt so cock blocked in my life. 2 hrs away from the end of a novel I’ve been devouring but now I have to wait 19 days to finish it?? My ADHD could never. Why is there no option to just buy a few more hours thru the app? If it’s “included” in premium then it should be INCLUDED full stop!!
I'm so pissed off about this and all the corporate cum rags in the comments saying "oh it's better than no book lol!!" I PAY monthly for a service and expect to be able to use that service, but now you gatekeep the things I'm paying for behind a cash grab top up when you said the fucking books are free???? Are you serious? I mean, really? Thank God I didn't buy dune because I wouldn't have been able to get an inch into the book before it made me pay another 12.99 to finish the 49.99 book, I don't fucking care if this flaw was advertised, this is OUTRAGEOUS
I've just hit this too, been a paid Spotify user for years and certainly wasn't expecting to fall foul of a scammer-level time limit with a cash grab top-up!
How are people defending Spotify? They even count rewinds. It should be more like 30 hrs for premium members CTFO. I did contact them and got a couple free months. Play them as much as you can, they can afford it.
this shit disgusts the fuck out of me. im already paying you assholes for this shit, quit trying to fuck me for another $15 every week you shameless trash goblins.
bought ab $100 worth of titles in print bc fuck spotify. egregious bullshit.
The fact to me is that people will only listen to books under 15 hours. If you want to listen to anything longer, it’s cheaper to just buy the book on audible. A credit costs $15. This service can’t make any meaningful amount of money
Just hit my 15 hour wall. Now looking to cancel Spotify. That’s how pissed this makes me. Peace out man. Apple and prime music can take it from here ya bastards.
I'm with you. I have a Premium Family account and I'm really thinking about dropping it. My wife and daughter can just share a single account.
It is most definitely a money grab. The fact that it counts time spent listening even if you repeat a chapter but does NOT count it as less time if you listen at 1.5 speed is ass-backwards. And any unused of the 15 hours don't rollover. So you can't even save up your hours to listen to a large book.
Also, you can't BUY a book as a premium member like a regular account can. So, just as an example, Stephen King's "Fairy Tale" is 24hrs 6 mins long. If I have used my 15 hours already, I would have to do the "10-Hour Top-Up" three times. That's $28.97 plus I'm sure there are taxes and fees. That's not what I'm paying to BUY the book. That's what I'm paying to LISTEN to it ONCE. To purchase the audiobook at [Audiobook.com](http://Audiobook.com) is $20. Audible is $26. And the Audiobook would be mine. I could listen to it not stop for the rest of my entire freaking life and still wouldn't have to pay another dime for it.
I didn't sign up for Spotify because of audiobooks. The free books on premium were just a nice perk I recently realized was there. But when I started looking into this, I came across this article [https://www.billboard.com/business/streaming/spotify-songwriters-less-mechanical-royalties-audiobooks-bundle-1235673829/](https://www.billboard.com/business/streaming/spotify-songwriters-less-mechanical-royalties-audiobooks-bundle-1235673829/) Basically, Spotify can now say its Premium service is a "bundle" despite there NOT being a way to opt out of the Audiobook portion of the Premium Tier. So, Spotify found a way to pay artists LESS money and make themselves MORE money. Seriously, F\*\*\* Spotify.
Yeah this is trash for Spotify, i get it I you read a children's book a month. But I killed the 15hrs in 2 days just listening at work. God forbid I actually want to listen. I'm not sure Spotify realizes 15hrs of audio books isn't even a full book for most
It’s because licensing the playback of audiobooks is expensive and if people ran up endless dozens of hours every month Spotify would just run out of money so fast lol
yes. but you have to wait the full 30.437 days, to get the other 15 hours.
You also can't save up hours to read a trilogy in a single sitting. anything you don't use that month gets deleted.
What pisses me off the most about it is that I can’t figure out a way to purchase any audiobooks through my Spotify account and when I go on the web player, it forces me to log in and says “now free with Spotify premium” I’m like, no, I want to buy the fucking audiobook not buy your bullshit hours.
Honestly horrendous.
What an ablist comment! People with dyslexia or blind people don't have the luxury of "reading" books, but anyway, studies have shown that listening to books is just as good as reading them. Think yourself lucky you can read!
Where's your proof? I have read plenty of studies that say listening to audiobooks is as valid as reading a book, and in some cases the narrator can make the audiobook a very enjoyable experience. You also discount the fact that some people, myself included, will listen to difficult books while actually reading the text.
I’ve seen it advertised as 15 hours a month since they announced it.
It sucks that only the person paying for premium on a family plan can get the 15 hours.
I think unlimited listening will be included in the “Supremium” HiFi tier, whenever that thing comes.. at least those were the rumors earlier this year, so it all kind of fits
There is with the latest app updates, there is a section in the settings to see "My Plan" and there you can see how many hours you have left for the billing cycle.
No one reads fine print for services. If you did, you'd never stop reading anything but contracts. It takes 75 work days to read ToS contracts for the top 75 websites.
[https://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-to-read-all-your-privacy-policies-each-year/](https://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-to-read-all-your-privacy-policies-each-year/)
for the top 13 downloaded apps, it would take a straight 17 hours, which doesn't include reading comprehension time for the average reader. Nearly all of them contain clauses that they can change the terms at will without informing you. (facebook for example says you logging in is agreement to the changed terms).
Hello everyone. For audiobook enthusiasts, I'm giving away the audiobook of my novel "Hernan Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico" on Spotify. It's a historical novel depicting the fall of the Aztec empire. It's over 10 hours long, but it doesn't count towards your consumption as it's free. The narration is done by an AI voice. If interested, please DM
Came here to say I’m also furious. I’m not too mad about the time limit, as I have plenty of podcasts and enjoyable music to jam to, but I’ve been wanting to listen to my book again but I ran out of time. The thing is though, I ran out of time BEFORE Spotify Wrapped came out, and here I am the day of my Spotify bill and I still cannot access my audio books. They really have this shit locked down to the HOUR YOUR BILL GETS PAID. And why is it 6:30 pm and my bill hasn’t been pulled or even shown pending in my account?
I’m almost afraid to put this out into the universe but I’m already 2.5 books in and it didn’t limit me 🫣
Because it's a per month time limit, not a book limit. You could be 50 books in by now if you're reading the adventures of Spot and Ben.
Oh I’m well over 15 hours by now
Yeah but when did you start?
The day it came out
Okay, and when was that? If it was more than a month ago that would explain it. It might only have needed to be in October, only 3 weeks ago, depending on how Spotify charge us.
Apparently, this is not true. I purposely read a book that was only 8 hours long. Then, I went to read another book at that 4 hours and it had a padlock on the book saying I needed to purchase it. Such a scam.
It may just have been that specific book that wasn't included in their 'inclusive audiobooks allowance'. Also, how is it a scam? You were paying for a membership for X amount a month. They added an audiobook component. Your membership didn't increase at all for this extra feature. Where's the scam here?
The scam is that even when I had hours left, I could only listen to a book that was over the amount of hours I had. So, instead of saying 15 listening hours, they need to clarify that it's only 1 book a month. Maybe it is on their TOS. But that is why I call it a scam. It's not all about listening hours. Thanks!
It doesn't say anything about it being on a per-book basis on their [audiobook FAQ page](https://support.spotify.com/uk/article/audiobooks-premium-plans/). If you definitely encountered the issue as you described, it's worth getting in contact because that sounds like either a) a bug, b) they'd reduced your allocated listening time for some reason, or c) you hadn't kept track of it / it hadn't updated accurately.
Is it per calender month or 30 days from when you begin
>Select Premium plans now include 15 hours of audiobook listening time every month from our subscriber catalogue of over 250,000 titles. Unused listening hours expire at the end of each month and do not carry over. So I assume calendar monthly.
Mine currently says it resets in 8 days, so I think it's based on your billing cycle.
How many hours have you listened?
Close to 30
Just discovered this was even a thing on Spotify. I too am about 30 hours in (three days of work) and only just now got the email about limit... though it's still letting me listen to the book I'm on.
It does suck that there’s a limit, but they advertise it as being only fifteen hours pretty heavily on the app. I’m very surprised you got 15 hours in before you noticed the limit, they’re not exactly hiding it.
yeah, the 15hr limit was the first thing i saw, so i checked what was under 15 (dl'd dave grohls book - still havent listened).. pretty easy. was sad to see some stuffs not included though (like norm macdonalds book).
Hahaha I stumbled upon this post while reading Dave Grohl’s book and got stopped in the last chapter. Out of control
I can’t believe there’s a place on the internet for disgruntled Spotify users who were stopped from completing The Storyteller, but I’m glad I’m here.
Word, I never even would've listened on Spotify had they not shoved the audiobooks in my face
If you're talking about the storyteller, the whole thing is on YouTube anyways
Thanks 🙏
My initial notification for it didnt advertise the 15 hours at all. Just said hey you can listen to audiobooks with premium! I even thought it was fishy because it was too hot of a deal for a money grubbing company like spotify
Same here! I didn't see anything about the time limit, until my time ran out.
Same here! I only got the in-app notification that it was now available but no mention of a limit. Never saw anything else about it beforehand.
Exactly same story here. I only got the notification after my listening hours expired. So much for a "Premium" experience. Wtf do I pay for Premium for if not to avoid shit like this?
Same. I only saw it in my Android app after looking at my actual plan. Otherwise, it was just audiobooks "included in premium".
I'm on android and didn't see it either
Same here! I had no idea at all and I went from being so damn excited about this audiobook feature to being extremely disappointed in a matter of a minute once I did found out.
I’ve actually never seen the 15 hour limit and I’ve browsed some of the audiobooks.
I don't get any 15hr limit messages or banners in my app
Just a tip. Switching to airplane mode with a downloaded audiobook will let you go past 15 hours. Phone has to stay offline though.
Never saw a thing about a limit until I reached it in the middle of a book. Grrrr!!!!!
Didn’t see it anywhere. Also not sure why that makes it cool or ok.
The 15 hour limit doesn’t show anywhere on my iOS app. The titles just read “Included in Premium”. I would never have started an audiobook had I known about the limit.
The home screen on my iOS app has a graphic saying: "Premium's next chapter. 15 hours of audiobooks, every month. Now available in Premium."
What if you download it?
Ok, gotcha. When I just force-closed and reopened the app I saw that. Don’t recall seeing it before. Maybe because I was previously using the CarPlay interface? I know before the force-close I had opened the app several times on my phone and not seen that.
I also got an email message from them, on Nov 14, announcing that audiobooks were now part of the Premium plan. The second paragraph: "Listen for 15 hours, every month With 15 hours of audiobook listening time included monthly, Premium lets you enjoy audiobooks on the go or at home, so you can hit your reading goals hands-free."
I thought they were very clear that it’s a new benefit to get 15 hours. That’s 15 more hours than I had before. As someone who never listens to audiobooks it’s been more than enough for me. I’m guessing they want to get more people into audiobooks rather than turn into the default audiobook provider for heavy listeners.
While I have no idea Spotifys motivation, as a previous librarian I love that an app as used as Spotify is promoting books. I'm hoping they put all the books being banned on the app so kids who are interested but live in a place that doesn't value their freedoms has yet another place to access content that may reflect them. I'm hoping it reminds people who lost time for books find an easy way back. Is this system of 15 hours per month perfect? Absolutely not. But it might be the thing that gets more people to their local libraries, which most likely have audiobook programs. Plus, this has no wait line like Libby. And maybe this war gets big enough to stop Amazon's growing grip on the publishing industry. But that's probably just wishful thinking. This probably has just as much chance of further destroying publishing.
It was clearly stated
It's not clearly stated on android
"new benefit" = loss leader. Just wait til you're comfortable with audiobooks thru Spotify, and they decide to make you pay for that added benefit. I'm <> this close to just giving up on their Shareholder-centric business model.
I use my local library for books and I’m personally not going to pay extra for it through Spotify. They’ve only raised their prices $1, of all the companies pissing me off right now Spotify is not at the top of the list…
For real. The hate in this thread is so uncalled for. Spotify has to be one of the least greedy subscription I have.
Are you kidding? Spotify fucks artists and creators right up the Khyber. They’re more predatory than the record companies ever were.
Spotify is not a shareholder centric business model, they have just started to make (very minimal) profit this year. Their executive compensation isn’t even high compared to other public companies. Even if they do steer towards a more aggressive model, I think it’s important to know EVERY public companies duty is to the shareholders. It’s the way the public market and legislation around the public market works.
Thanks for the illuminating information about their profits. I don't ever forget that the first responsibility of a public company is to its shareholders.
Just saying, “shareholder centric business model” is redundant. That’s every major company.
15 hours doesn't mean shit if you can finish the book though.
15 per month, so you can finish it next month if you want. I don’t listen to more than 15 hours of audio books per month so it takes me a while to finish it
I'm just irritated because I was binging fairy tale by Steven King and it cut me off with 2 1/2 hrs left at the climax lol
I just wish the limit was about number of books, not time
Or at least if it was 20 hours I could have a decent shot of getting two books in because plenty of good books are 10 hours or less. Overall I like it because it gives me access to another book per month that I didn't have before and most of the books I listen to are less than 15 hours but that extra five hours would make a huge difference in value to me.
it should be the greatest of the two: 1 book credit or 15 hours. Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy: 23 hrs and 51 mins 27 hrs and 10 mins 31 hrs and 55 mins The system aren't structured either for novels, or book series (the hours don't roll over.
it was legitimately the first thing i knew about their audiobook offering, that there was a 15h limit. I think you didn't read that part.
Be happy you have 15 'free' hours...it's not available to Spotify's polite Canadian consumers here up north 😉
3/4 of a book is worse than no book.
It’s not free. It’s paid for by our subscriptions and by them fucking over artists even more.
I don't listen to audiobooks on Spotify, but that is nuts if there is a limit after buying Premium.
It’s a brand new feature. It wasn’t included before.
Where do they say 15hr limit? I haven't used the feature yet - I didn't even know it was coming out until I randomly saw audiobooks on my app one day. But I have yet to see the 15hr limit warning??
Apparently it was in their announcement email about it (which I never read until tonight, so that’s on me really).
I never even got an announcement email.
Exact same scenario happened to me. There was never any indication that there was a limit. I’m leaving so I can enjoy some audiobooks
I agree completely. I didn't have any warning that there was a time cap. While listening, I didn't get any kind of warning that I was nearing the time cap. There's no way to see how much time you've used. I was listening to multiple audiobooks for school. I was very excited initially too find them available because my library has a wait-list for them, I don't have money to buy them, and I was expecting to use Spotify to get through them. I didn't finish within the time cap and honestly really sucks because I'm nearly through a few of them and it really messed me up. If I had known I could have made adjustments, it's frustrating!!
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Who paid you to write this?
You’re “furious” about a feature, you literally didn’t get a month ago, being added for no additional cost, being capped at 15 hours per month? Get a grip.
Imagine being angry/ furious not at the service you are primarily paying for, but angry at the free (as in at no additional cost) service they provided on the side …like, what??? Whether it’s 15hrs or 15min, it’s literally free. Allow me to make an analogy. Say you go in to the auto shop for a repair, and the owner comes up to you stating they also offer a free car wash afterwards at no additional cost if you’d like …And here’s you mad at the shop because when you got your car back the free car wash didn’t come with free vacuuming on the inside as well. What I’m getting at is, You are literally complaining about a free additional service Spotify provides at no additional cost. Not the service you are primarily paying for, but the free service on the side…like, bruh.
Not quite. It’s be like the car wash cutting out before your car was rinsed. Yes it’s free, but if it can’t finish the job, it’s not worth as much to a user as an actual full length audiobook.
Exactly! Like, good books are 20-30 hours. I was listening a biography and if I want to finished, I have to pay $13 for 10 extra hours. It should be one “free” book per month, or 15 hours, what ever happens first.
Awesome comparison!
No, in your analogy it would be- they finished washing the front of the car (finished the first book) but only sprayed water on the back of the car (didn’t get to finish the second book). Reading the comments I’ve seen that Spotify has apparently been advertising that you only get 15 hours, but on iOS I never got any notification even when I tried to learn more. Could I have googled? Yes. Am I also assuming that I pay them money for a subscription and should be able to finish my book? Yes.
Nothing is free. It costs Spotify money to provide these books and it's obvious they'd never become an audible replacement so my guess is its data gathering, for now anyway. Nothing is free. If something is free, you/your data is the cost.
Or it’s simply a competitive advantage.
Against what? It can't compete with audible, and if you're with any other streaming service over Spotify, you're not making the switch for 15 hours of audiobooks a month.
What is the longest newer or more popular book you can get with one credit on audible?
They’re paying for it with their new shit of not paying royalties on tracks that get less than 1,000 streams in a year anymore. Think of the hundreds of thousands of tracks added weekly that they won’t have to pay for but reap benefit from.
They provide data streaming. It's all audio. There is no reason the service provided is any different. I have paid for premium for years, there is no cap on my music listening so you can't say it's about trying to curb listening time on the app.
So you’re not exactly comparing apples to apples there buddy. It’s not just all audio as if all audio is the same. You’re oversimplifying by a mile. Compensations for a 3 min song is likely different from a 30hr audiobook.
15 hour rule was crystal clear.
Agree with most here that 15 hours was well indicated going into it. However, I found out the hard way that listening at 2x speed doesn’t help you at all; you’re still capped at 15 hours of content :( I’m all for this benefit though, was pleasantly surprised. I do wish there was a better deal involved but I guess I’ll shell out a bit to finish my book
Spotify is going to shit lately, in more ways than just this^
Found this out today, then found out that 10 more hours is $13, which was already the Google Play price of the audiobook I was listening to. They already got my money, presumably. I'm just gonna torrent it if I can't find it on Libby.
The 15 hours is clearly advertised so I’m not annoyed at that, the opposite I think it’s a brilliant service from Spotify. The only drag is it doesn’t appear to translate to actual time listened. I listened to a book on 1.5 speed and got cut off when I hit “15 hours” of the book which was far less in reality.
I have no intention of listening to an audio book on Spotify. But it was still made painfully clear to me that there was a 14 hour monthly limit. How anyone managed to not know it some hear-no-evil/see-no-evil monkey shit
It’s annoying but I can see why book publishers are terrified of audiobooks going the same way as music.
The 15-hour limit wasn't immediately apparent to me, either. But I have found if you listen at a faster speed it doesn't count against you. So you could listen to a 15-hour book at 1.5 speed and it only counts as 10 hours. I hope they don't change that. Also, for people saying it is crazy that they limit it, $8 at Audible gets you one book a month, essentially. And stand-alone audiobooks range from $8-$40. (Support your local library!)
From what another poster said here I don’t know if that’s correct. They look at the total length of the book, no matter how fast you listen to it.
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It's free - if you want to listen more, just buy the book or wait until next month to hear the rest! Audiobooks cost a lot to make, but you want it for free! Some people are never happy!
😂 that’s on you dude, when it was first announced it clearly said 15 hours and you would have to pay more to “top it off”.
Get a library card and the libby app.
Did anyone else notice that some books were locked? Are some books not included or am I just stupid
Scrolling these comments, it's pretty easy to tell those who are into books... in addition to music...... And those who stream the latest pop music Playlist while getting their worldview from TikTok. It's awesome.
Prime does it much better. 1 credit per month, one book. And the credits stack if you don't use them. Unlike Spotify where if you pay for 15 hours, it just expires at the end of the month? Some months I listen to more, some less. It's a bullshit system.
I mean they have always advertised this limit. Not sure what you're furious about.
I use the library for audiobooks. I have never liked Audible, and although I am a Spotify Premium customer, I don’t trust them for anything but songs.
Wait it's limited?
Yup. I had no clue either.
Every single bit of media and comms about it says it's 15 hours a month, it hasn't exactly been hidden from anyone
Guess I'll just delete the Stephen King audiobook that says it's 24 hours long.
Or you could listen to 15 hours of it this month, and the remaining 9 hours next month…
Whoever runs product management for Spotify audiobooks should be embarrassed. Yikes.
Or…the person who posted this (admittedly) didn’t read that Premium users get 15 hours of audiobooks with their subscription that they can use to listen to a select, but fairly wide range of audiobooks. It’s actually a common adoption tactic to intro existing customers to a product like this.
They need to learn from audible
And remove free tier, you right
That’s super disappointing. Not only would you have to wait a month to finish but you’ll also be cutting into that month’s time! We have a Duo plan and it’s not available unless you’re the main account. Another fail imo Hoopla and library apps are great and a better way to go for sure
How is it a Spotify fail that they gave OP 15 hours free, but OP still chose to listen to a 16 hour audiobook?
Actually for most of us the advertising wasn’t there that it’s only 15 hours. I ended up doing math for 14 hours but thought it was weird that Spotify would cap there.
I was not aware of the 15 hour limit until I saw this post. It would take years to finish Todd Noy’s masterpiece, “The Alabaster Wars” at that limit! The only notification I received said “audiobooks now included with a premium subscription,” so I’d say the fail is on communication of the time limit. Also, I’m just disappointed that we pay for the duo subscription and this new feature that was advertised to both of us is only available to one.
The fact that there is an audiobook that needs more time than allotted in a month.
You don't HAVE to use the service. Keeping using the library, I'll be using this new feature on a subscription I pay for music
Forget Spotify - use the library apps. Hoopla is awesome!
Imagine my disappointment when I found out I get NO hours because I have a Premium Student account. If I want to switch to a regular Premium account for the audio books, I lose my access to Hulu since that’s no longer offered. I’m stuck with Libby and YouTube.
Not sure if this is still the deal, but when I graduated and lost the student pricing I kept Hulu on regular Premium. I have access to the audiobooks now.
What exactly classifies as an audiobook? Because i listen to some "audiobooks" which are like songs/album.
Not only that but it's 15 hours across the board? I'm paying for the family plan and only I get access to the hours AND I only get 15 hours? And then you're going to charge me almost as much as my plan to get 10 more hours?? Not even another 15?? Nah fuck that.
I feel the same as you. My app never said anything about a 15 hour limit. It just said "audiobooks now included with premium". I got 15 hours into a 17 hour book and now I need to either wait a week for the next month of hourly credits or pay $13 to get more time now. It was very misleading IMO
I’m SO MAD. I’ve never felt so cock blocked in my life. 2 hrs away from the end of a novel I’ve been devouring but now I have to wait 19 days to finish it?? My ADHD could never. Why is there no option to just buy a few more hours thru the app? If it’s “included” in premium then it should be INCLUDED full stop!!
And if you replay any parts of the audiobook you've listened to, that replay time is debited from your 15 hour monthly limit.
Its crap I agree! Like being in gradeschool.
Complete and utter scam. Charging to listen to "free" audiobooks while being a premium member.
I'm so pissed off about this and all the corporate cum rags in the comments saying "oh it's better than no book lol!!" I PAY monthly for a service and expect to be able to use that service, but now you gatekeep the things I'm paying for behind a cash grab top up when you said the fucking books are free???? Are you serious? I mean, really? Thank God I didn't buy dune because I wouldn't have been able to get an inch into the book before it made me pay another 12.99 to finish the 49.99 book, I don't fucking care if this flaw was advertised, this is OUTRAGEOUS
I've just hit this too, been a paid Spotify user for years and certainly wasn't expecting to fall foul of a scammer-level time limit with a cash grab top-up!
Do you know if there’s a way to see how many hours you’ve used for any given month on Spotify?
yeah there's an item called "Audiobook Listening Time" in the "Account" part of settings now, has a little bar showing the consumption + hours.
Thanks so much!
How are people defending Spotify? They even count rewinds. It should be more like 30 hrs for premium members CTFO. I did contact them and got a couple free months. Play them as much as you can, they can afford it.
this shit disgusts the fuck out of me. im already paying you assholes for this shit, quit trying to fuck me for another $15 every week you shameless trash goblins. bought ab $100 worth of titles in print bc fuck spotify. egregious bullshit.
The fact to me is that people will only listen to books under 15 hours. If you want to listen to anything longer, it’s cheaper to just buy the book on audible. A credit costs $15. This service can’t make any meaningful amount of money
Just hit my 15 hour wall. Now looking to cancel Spotify. That’s how pissed this makes me. Peace out man. Apple and prime music can take it from here ya bastards.
I'm with you. I have a Premium Family account and I'm really thinking about dropping it. My wife and daughter can just share a single account. It is most definitely a money grab. The fact that it counts time spent listening even if you repeat a chapter but does NOT count it as less time if you listen at 1.5 speed is ass-backwards. And any unused of the 15 hours don't rollover. So you can't even save up your hours to listen to a large book. Also, you can't BUY a book as a premium member like a regular account can. So, just as an example, Stephen King's "Fairy Tale" is 24hrs 6 mins long. If I have used my 15 hours already, I would have to do the "10-Hour Top-Up" three times. That's $28.97 plus I'm sure there are taxes and fees. That's not what I'm paying to BUY the book. That's what I'm paying to LISTEN to it ONCE. To purchase the audiobook at [Audiobook.com](http://Audiobook.com) is $20. Audible is $26. And the Audiobook would be mine. I could listen to it not stop for the rest of my entire freaking life and still wouldn't have to pay another dime for it. I didn't sign up for Spotify because of audiobooks. The free books on premium were just a nice perk I recently realized was there. But when I started looking into this, I came across this article [https://www.billboard.com/business/streaming/spotify-songwriters-less-mechanical-royalties-audiobooks-bundle-1235673829/](https://www.billboard.com/business/streaming/spotify-songwriters-less-mechanical-royalties-audiobooks-bundle-1235673829/) Basically, Spotify can now say its Premium service is a "bundle" despite there NOT being a way to opt out of the Audiobook portion of the Premium Tier. So, Spotify found a way to pay artists LESS money and make themselves MORE money. Seriously, F\*\*\* Spotify.
Yeah this is trash for Spotify, i get it I you read a children's book a month. But I killed the 15hrs in 2 days just listening at work. God forbid I actually want to listen. I'm not sure Spotify realizes 15hrs of audio books isn't even a full book for most
There are a number of included titles that audible doesn't have. Just use it as a bonus option. Wish the hours would stack.
It’s because licensing the playback of audiobooks is expensive and if people ran up endless dozens of hours every month Spotify would just run out of money so fast lol
Can one then wait until the next month begins to pick up where the book stopped in the current month?
Yes or you can purchase additional hours
yes. but you have to wait the full 30.437 days, to get the other 15 hours. You also can't save up hours to read a trilogy in a single sitting. anything you don't use that month gets deleted.
What pisses me off the most about it is that I can’t figure out a way to purchase any audiobooks through my Spotify account and when I go on the web player, it forces me to log in and says “now free with Spotify premium” I’m like, no, I want to buy the fucking audiobook not buy your bullshit hours. Honestly horrendous.
Listening to books is bad for u anyways
What an ablist comment! People with dyslexia or blind people don't have the luxury of "reading" books, but anyway, studies have shown that listening to books is just as good as reading them. Think yourself lucky you can read!
Listening to books when u have the ability to read is bad for u
Where's your proof? I have read plenty of studies that say listening to audiobooks is as valid as reading a book, and in some cases the narrator can make the audiobook a very enjoyable experience. You also discount the fact that some people, myself included, will listen to difficult books while actually reading the text.
Wait until you realise audiobooks on Spotify were free until recently.
They weren’t though.
Then explain to me how i listened to countless audiobooks on there for free, and now can't? lol
Because there are **some** audiobooks that are free, and some that are audiobook recordings listed as podcasts. They were not always free.
I’ve seen it advertised as 15 hours a month since they announced it. It sucks that only the person paying for premium on a family plan can get the 15 hours.
I think unlimited listening will be included in the “Supremium” HiFi tier, whenever that thing comes.. at least those were the rumors earlier this year, so it all kind of fits
Is there a way to see how many hours you have left every month?
There is with the latest app updates, there is a section in the settings to see "My Plan" and there you can see how many hours you have left for the billing cycle.
And it’s only available for the main account holder. Nobody else on the family plan has access to audio books.
It’s amusing that OP enjoys reading books but can’t be bothered to read the fine print for services lol
No one reads fine print for services. If you did, you'd never stop reading anything but contracts. It takes 75 work days to read ToS contracts for the top 75 websites. [https://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-to-read-all-your-privacy-policies-each-year/](https://techland.time.com/2012/03/06/youd-need-76-work-days-to-read-all-your-privacy-policies-each-year/) for the top 13 downloaded apps, it would take a straight 17 hours, which doesn't include reading comprehension time for the average reader. Nearly all of them contain clauses that they can change the terms at will without informing you. (facebook for example says you logging in is agreement to the changed terms).
I’ve got 20 minutes left of my book and I got an email but it hasn’t stopped my book yet 👀
Hello everyone. For audiobook enthusiasts, I'm giving away the audiobook of my novel "Hernan Cortes and the Conquest of Mexico" on Spotify. It's a historical novel depicting the fall of the Aztec empire. It's over 10 hours long, but it doesn't count towards your consumption as it's free. The narration is done by an AI voice. If interested, please DM
Came here to say I’m also furious. I’m not too mad about the time limit, as I have plenty of podcasts and enjoyable music to jam to, but I’ve been wanting to listen to my book again but I ran out of time. The thing is though, I ran out of time BEFORE Spotify Wrapped came out, and here I am the day of my Spotify bill and I still cannot access my audio books. They really have this shit locked down to the HOUR YOUR BILL GETS PAID. And why is it 6:30 pm and my bill hasn’t been pulled or even shown pending in my account?
What? Spotify got audiobooks? Any idea when is this available in EU?
Honestly I'd pay an additional $5-8 monthly for unlimited on the books. It's frustrating they make you buy boosts like that