Spotify has launched a new feature called Page Match that lets you quickly sync your spot in a physical or ebook with an audiobook. Point your camera at a page, and the Spotify app uses computer vision to match text with audio. If you have to jump behind the wheel for a long drive, but didn’t want to put down The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, you can just snap a pic to jump to the spot 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 Spotify’s version works with physical books and ebooks on any e-reader (though an ebook on your phone won’t work since 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 in reverse. Spotify can’t tell you what page to go to, due to differences in editions (hardcover vs. paperback, for instance). But it can tell you to turn the page until it finds the exact sentence. Open to any page, and it will tell you whether to go forward or back, with a progress bar. It will even highlight the passage for you onscreen.
In a brief hands-on, the feature seemed accurate, if a bit inconsistent speedwise. Sometimes the app took upwards of 10 seconds to find its bearings and queue up the proper section of the audiobook. Other times, it jumped to the correct bit in just one second. It was much slower in reverse, taking a few seconds with every page turn to figure out if you had landed in the right spot. And the progress bar at the bottom that tells you how close you are to the right page was a bit too vague to be useful. Though with practice, I’m sure it would get easier to interpret.
The company has clearly identified audiobooks as an area with growth potential. That’s not terribly surprising, given some of the stats the company dropped during its Turn the Page event in New York. A recent study found that just 16 percent of American adults read for pleasure in 2023 — that leaves a lot of room for improvement.
Over the last two years, Spotify has grown its audiobook library from 150,000 to over 500,000. And Owen Smith, the company’s global head of audiobooks, says it’s seen a 36 percent year-over-year growth of customers starting an audiobook on Spotify, and a 37 percent increase in listening hours.
Smith says that the growth is largely driven by existing customers rather than new subscribers. While I’m sure the company would love to siphon users away from Audible, ultimately, its goal is to keep people listening for as long as possible. Offering a variety of content types, especially longer-form content, is one way to achieve that.
Just as it went all in on podcasts, it seems like Spotify has decided to go all in on books now. It will expand its audiobook Recap feature, which came to iOS late last year, to Android in the Spring. And it’s even partnering with Bookshop.org, so you can buy a physical copy of the audiobook you’re listening to through the Spotify app.