Spotify Offers Free Audiobooks to Battle Audible, But Analysts Wary of Stock Outlook

Spotify is offering 15 hours of free audiobooks per month for premium subscribers, starting with the UK and Australia. The US launch will be this winter.

The goal is to capture market share in audiobooks, currently dominated by Amazon's Audible. Spotify has 150,000 titles via deals with publishers.

This builds on Spotify's 2021 acquisition of Findaway and 2022 launch of pay-per-download audiobooks. Post-pandemic, Spotify is struggling with profits.

The analyst believes Spotify stock has already peaked this year after an 89% gain, expecting downturn ahead amid competition.

Overall consensus is moderately bullish on Spotify stock with a 15.9% upside.