Spotify has launched a new feature called Page Match that lets you quickly sync your place in a physical or ebook with an audiobook. Point your camera at the page and the Spotify app uses computer vision to match the text to the audio. If you have to jump behind the wheel for a long drive, but did not want to lay down Buffalo Hunterjust take a picture and jump to the place in the audiobook where you left off in the physical book.
It’s not unlike Amazon’s Whispersync for Voice, which lets you seamlessly jump back and forth between Kindle books and Audible audiobooks. The difference is that the Spotify version works with physical books and e-books on any e-reader (although an e-book on your phone won’t work because the app uses the camera and can’t read your screen). Page Match will be available on “most English-language titles” at launch, and the company plans to expand over time.
It also works the other way around. Spotify can’t tell you which page to go to because of differences in editions (hardcover vs. paperback, for example). But he can tell you to turn the page until he finds the exact sentence. Open any page and it uses a progress bar to tell you whether to go forward or backward. It even highlights the passage for you on the screen.
During a brief hands-on session, the feature seemed accurate, if a little inconsistent in terms of speed. Sometimes the app took up to 10 seconds to find its way and queue the correct section of the audiobook. Other times he jumped to the right piece in just one second. In retrospect, it was much slower and took a few seconds with each turn of the page to see if you landed in the right place. And the progress bar at the bottom that tells you how close you are to the right page was too vague to be useful. Although with practice I’m sure it would be easier to interpret.
The company has clearly identified audiobooks as an area with growth potential. That’s not particularly surprising considering some of the stats the company dropped during the Turn the Page event in New York. A recent study found that only 16 percent of American adults read for pleasure in 2023—leaving a lot of room for improvement.
Over the past two years, Spotify has grown its audiobook library from 150,000 to more than 500,000. And Owen Smith, the company’s global head of audiobooks, says it’s seen a 36 percent year-over-year increase in customers starting an audiobook on Spotify and a 37 percent increase in listening time.
Smith says the growth is largely driven by existing customers rather than new subscribers. While I’m sure the company would love to lure users away from Audible, their goal is to keep people listening for as long as possible. One way to do this is to offer different types of content, especially longer content.
Just as it went all-in on podcasts, it looks like Spotify has decided to go all-in on books, too. It will expand its Audiobook Recap feature, which came to iOS late last year, to Android in the spring. And it’s even partnered with Bookshop.org so you can buy a physical copy of the audiobook you’re listening to through the Spotify app.