Free access to Spotify audiobooks is now available to Premium subscribers in the US. The new perk first launched last month in the UK and Australia …
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A reported Spotify audiobooks development has now been confirmed by the company. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to 15 hours of audiobooks at no extra cost – though Americans are not first in line.
Whether or not 15 hours will let you listen to an entire book will depend on the book …
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Good news for fans of Spotify and audiobooks. Spotify has announced it plans in building an audiobook platform as its next business venture. This news comes after the music and podcast streaming platform acquired audiobook platform Findaway last year.
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Since Apple announced its shift to not only be a hardware and software company but also a service one in 2018, it has introduced several new subscriptions such as Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and, ultimately, the Apple One bundle. Now, a report suggests the company could launch an audiobooks service later this year.
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Spotify audiobooks have so far seemed a forgotten offering, with just a handful of titles added last year, but there is now an indication that the company is gearing up for a more serious push into this market.
The audio streaming company has just added nine titles, all classics with new narrations …
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If you have Sonos speakers, you can listen to free audiobooks by any author thanks to a new integration with the Libby app.
You may already know about the Libby app. This lets you borrow both ebooks and audiobooks from your local library, downloading them to your Kindle, iPhone, iPad or Mac …
Reuters reports that the Germany antitrust body the Federal Cartel Office has opened an investigation into the arrangement by which Apple purchases audiobooks from Amazon subsidiary Audible for sale in iTunes.
“The two companies have a strong position in the digital offering of audiobooks in Germany. Therefore, we feel compelled to examine the agreement between these two competitors in the audiobooks in more detail,” cartel office chief Andreas Mundt said in a statement.
The piece notes that Apple declined to comment, while Amazon could not be reached for comment.
Apple lost a separate U.S. case in which it was found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour in its ebook sales. The U.S. Justice Department recently agreed that Apple had now properly addressed the issues, though this may not be the end of the battle: Apple is appealing that case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The popular Amazon-owned Audible audiobooks service is the latest app to gain support for Apple’s CarPlay feature. The new version of Audible’s iPhone app released today now will automatically appear on CarPlay head units once installed on your iPhone so you can find and control audiobook playback from your library using the interface optimized for driving. The update includes a long list of other changes as well including:
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In redesigning the iOS Music application for iOS 8.4, Apple removed support for audiobooks from the app, electing to move it to the iBooks app. iBooks itself has gained an all-new audio player with support for swiping gestures to fast forward or rewind, view a chapter list, and more.
Apple has only sanctioned a small set of App Store apps to support its CarPlay feature with Audio Books for iPhone today joining that limited list. The latest version of Audio Books adds integration with CarPlay head units for easily finding audiobooks to play through your car stereo on your drive.
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