Spotify is introducing three new audiobook discovery tools: AI-generated personalized playlists, a conversational search interface, and one-tap next-in-series recommendations. The features aim to reduce the time listeners spend searching for their next title.
“Books are one of the most powerful ways people spend time on Spotify, and our focus is making it easier than ever to discover great stories and stay immersed in them,” said James Jacoby, Senior Director of Engineering & Insights, Audiobooks at Spotify. “With these new features, we’re reducing the friction between listeners and the books they’ll love. Helping people spend less time searching and more time inside the story, while advancing our mission to get more books to more people.”
Prompted Playlist expands to audiobooks
Spotify first launched Prompted Playlist in beta last year, allowing users to create music playlists by describing what they wanted. The tool later expanded to podcasts, where more than half of users who tried it discovered a new show.
Now, the feature is available for audiobooks. Listeners can type a request describing the kind of book they want, and Spotify will generate a tailored playlist based on personal listening habits and trending literary content. Users can set playlists to refresh daily or weekly for ongoing recommendations.
Example prompts include: “A list of books with adaptations from the last three years that are beloved or critically acclaimed,” or “Make me an audiobook calendar. Start with the current month and pick one book per month, under 15 hours. Each book should be a perfect thematic fit for the month while also being a book that fits my listening habits.”
The feature is rolling out in beta to eligible Premium subscribers in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. Usage limits may apply during the testing phase.
Conversational search comes to books
A new conversational experience lets users type or speak to have a back-and-forth dialogue with Spotify. The system can field requests for recommendations, answer questions about a current listen, and switch between music, podcasts, and audiobooks within a single session.
Users can ask, for example, “What Scandinavian noir should I listen to for my upcoming trip to Sweden?” or “Where does the Cyclops first appear in The Odyssey?” The interface understands follow-up questions, allowing the session to evolve in real time.
This conversational tool is available in English to eligible Premium users aged 18 and older in the U.S., Ireland, and Sweden.
Next-in-series recommendations
When a listener finishes a book that belongs to a series, Spotify will now surface the next installment with a single tap. Books that are part of a multi-part saga are marked, and dedicated series pages display the correct reading order. Author profile pages also list all series written by that author.
The next-in-series feature is available to users in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden.
