Oh, Spotify. It grants us free access to our favorite music and podcasts, but sometimes finding the stuff we want can be tricky. For example, where are the best audiobooks on Spotify?
Because audiobooks don’t have their own genre on Spotify, finding one can feel like going to a garage sale and rummaging around, trying to find the books, and then, when you find a box of books, turning it upside down, trying to find one you like. In short, it’s a pain. But no worries! I’m here to tell you how (and where) to find free audiobooks on Spotify.
I’m going to do this in a couple of steps:
- First, I am going to tell you where to find audiobooks on Spotify.
- Then—because listening to an audiobook on Spotify is not as easy as, say, downloading an Audiobook from audible, or popping an old-school Book on Tape into your car stereo (I am old, guys)—I am going to explain how to actually listen to them.
- Then I’ll give you a few recommendations.
One last note before the tutorial begins: all of my screenshots are from the free desktop version of Spotify. Why? Well, because the free version of the Spotify app doesn’t let you choose and listen to specific tracks on your phone. Instead it shuffles the tracks on a playlist or album. This is okay with music, but utterly impossible when you want to listen to a book from start to finish. (I assume that if you’re looking for free audiobooks on Spotify, you’re also using the free version of the app.)
Choose a playlist and play a song. Go to the detail section of the song by hitting the album icon on the very bottom of the screen. Hit the “i”-button. Turn off Shuffle mode. It’s as easy as that. To turn it on again -accidentally or not – just hit the Shuffle button on the playlist screen. Plan Free Country United States Device iPhone 6s Operating System iOS My Question or Issue I have a couple of playlists that I set up in a particular order to listen to and I don't want those specific playlists to be shuffled. Is it possible to update the app on the free plan to allow for a way to. Spotify features: Free streaming on mobile or tablet. Find music, play songs, stream albums and hits from all of your favourite artists. Listen to free music with the song downloader and music player to create your own playlist. Play music and turn on shuffle mode for a fun experience. Stream radio stations and play music from all. Tap the Shuffle icon on the far left of the playback controls. The shuffle icon looks like two crisscrossing arrows, and will be green if shuffle is enabled. Tapping it toggles shuffle play on and off. When shuffle play is off, the icon is white. How to Turn off Shuffle Play on Spotify on Mobile for Free 1. Download and install TutuApp APK's latest version on your Android devices from its official website. Enter TutuApp's interface and put 'Spotify MOD' in the search box. Download and Install. Open Spotify and login in. These are the key functions for a music player.” Asking around The Verge, it seemed that few of us regularly used Spotify’s repeat button to begin with, so most weren’t miffed.
Turn the “Explicit Content” toggle off. Regardless of how the toggle is set, you can often find “clean” versions of songs originally recorded with explicit lyrics. Enter the title of the song into the search bar on Spotify, either on your mobile device or on your computer, then choose the version of the song not marked as explicit.
Okay. Let’s get started.
Where to find an audiobook on Spotify
Start with a basic search
I find that the best place to start searching for audiobooks is in the playlists. So go ahead and type “audiobooks” into the search bar on the top of your Spotify screen.
I know the top result looks promising, but scroll down to the bottom of the search results, under the “songs.”
You’ll see right away, from the Top Result, that Spotify has its own Audiobooks playlist. It’s fine, but not terribly helpful if you have something specific in mind. It’s just kind of a big list of audiobooks. Chapter 1 from an unmarked Kafka book is thrown right in there with Alice in Wonderland.
So what I want you to do is scroll down the page, past the top result and past the “Songs” until you see “Artists” and “Albums” and “Playlists.” This is where the real search results are.
This is the bottom of the search result page, and it’s the part of the page you want to be on.
Check out the playlists
Let’s start with the playlists. Click “See All” to browse them.
There are a lot of audiobook playlists, many of which are maintained by individuals who have very specific tastes (Audiobooks in the Queen’s English, for example). These users have already gone through the trouble of curating audiobooks for you, so you may find stuff you like right there. If not, scroll though and find some that are similar what you’re looking for. See who posted them, or who the artist is. Click on the artist. Chances are, they will have more audiobooks on their own page.
This is how you find audiobook “artists” using a playlist.
Check out the artists
Audiobook “artists” on Spotify are a varied bunch.
Some audiobook narrators have artist pages. Some artists are simply sites that post a lot of audiobooks. And then there are actual author names used as artists—H.G. Wells, for example, or Virginia Woolf—the nice thing about artist pages for authors is that all of their audiobooks are listed on those pages, and also that other author pages are suggested in the sidebar. So, if you’re a fan of Jules Verne, Spotify might suggest that you also check out Arthur Conan Doyle.
Like Vonnegut? Look, his friends HG Wells and Aldous Huxley are on Spotify, too!
This method is by no means foolproof. Not all your favorite authors have artist pages, or if they do, there are only a few books up. And sometimes, because these audiobooks are uploaded by individuals and not publishers, they’re not in English. I got excited to see Terry Pratchett listed as an artist, but all of his audiobooks were in German. As were Neil Gaiman’s.
Also, as with free ebooks, you will have to wade through a lot of public domain novels. Expect to see a metric buttload of H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft. But you’ll also find some unexpected treasure troves (see below for a couple suggestions).
How to listen to an audiobook on Spotify
Okay. So you’ve found a playlist you like, and an audiobook you like. But all the playlists pretty much list just the first chapter of every audiobook. How do you listen to a whole book?
Come with me. I will show you.
Find the audiobook you like. Then look to the right of the title. You will see three little dots.
Just hover over the track listing with your cursor and the dots will appear.
Click on the dots. A menu will pop up. You want to find Go to Album. Click on that and it will take you to the full audiobook, which is technically an album on Spotify.
Then you can listen to the whole thing, in order!
Some good places to find Audiobooks on Spotify
In the course of researching this piece, I found some intriguing audiobook sources. Here are some of my favorites, but look around on your own, and you’re certain to find something that appeals to you.
Audiobooks: I really like the Audiobooks artist page, which maintains playlists of audiobooks by genre. And when I say genre, I mean everything. The playlists there range from nonfiction about wellness to new books to best sellers to children’s books. It also includes a short audio track, describing the process of finding and listening to full audiobooks, in case my explanation above made no sense.
Doctor Who: If you’re a Whovian, you are in luck! Doctor Who’s artist page has a several playlists of Doctor Who audiobooks.
DBS Audiobooks and Wordscape: Some profiles are sources for lots of classic audiobooks. Think Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and other old works. If you like classics, it’s definitely worth poking around on these two pages.
Various Authors: Various Authors is, hilariously, the name of an artist page. I’m recommending it because they release various collections of short stories from different genres, written by, well, various authors. So if you’ve just got a short amount of time, or you’re listening on the free mobile app and are stuck with shuffle, you can listen to a short story at a time.
Spotify’s Women’s History playlists: Last year, Spotify complied playlists of books, stories and poetry for Women’s History Month. Those are still there! Check them out!
Happy listening! And hit the comments if you have any other questions about audiobooks on Spotify!
Spotify on Wednesday expanded the free tier of its service to all devices, including smartphones and tablets.
In the past, free Spotify users could only access Spotify Radio on mobile devices and tablets, but like other radio services, this prevented them from listening to a specific artist or music in their own playlists. The new offering expands on-demand listening to free users on tablets, and allows smartphone users to listen to their own playlists or music from a specific artist in shuffle mode.
See also: Spotify Expands Free Streaming to All Devices
Spotify created the following chart, which shows the access options that users have:
When it comes to specifics on how everything works, it becomes a bit more complicated. Fortunately, Mashable spoke with Charlie Hellman, Spotify's vice president of product, who broke down the company's new mobile offering.
Can Free Users Listen to Any Song They Want on Mobile and Tablet?
You can listen to any song you want, and in any order, if you use Spotify on a tablet. On iOS, this means the iPad or iPad mini. On Android, Spotify is setting 7-inches in diagonal as the screen minimum for tablets. The app will determine which version of the experience you see in Android.
On the tablet, the play-on-demand feature works the same as it does on desktop. You will have ads every five to six songs, and you can't save playlists for offline listening. Spotify decided to treat the tablet as a desktop after observing how people use the product.
In a post-PC world, the tablet is increasingly becoming the main home computer for many consumers, including Spotify users; for that reason, the company chose to make the experience on-par with what you'd get on the desktop.
On smartphones, only Spotify Premium users have the option to listen to specific songs on-demand.
How Does Free Listening on Mobile Work?
Although Spotify doesn't offer free on-demand listening via mobile, it has substantially expanded the types of music you can listen to, and how you can listen to them.
You can now listen to music from any artist in 'shuffle' mode; this means you can search for an artist, then instantly listen to a station that only features that particular artist. It's a big switch from typical online radio services, such as Pandora and iTunes Radio, which may let you create a station around an artist, but wind up having other artists in the mix, too.
What's more, you can listen to your own Spotify playlists in shuffle mode. Be aware, however, that there are a few rules about how they work.
What Are the Rules for Free Shuffle Mode?
Your playlists will need to meet several parameters to work in free shuffle mode. (Don't worry, Spotify will automatically fill out your playlist if it doesn't meet these requirements.)
They include:
A playlist must have at least 20 songs
A playlist must consist of at least three albums
Even if you list the same track 20 times in a row, it still only counts as one
Spotify said the vast majority of playlists have more than 20 songs, and include many different artists. Although this means you can't listen exclusively to a shuffled mix of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, you can listen to Rolling Stone's playlist for its top 100 tracks of 2013.
Plus, as long as you add a few songs from other albums to your Random Access Memories playlist, you'll be guaranteed to hear the whole album during your listening session.
How Is This Better Than Pandora, Songza or iTunes Radio?
The biggest change is that you can choose to only listen to a specific artist — something the other services don't offer. What's more, you can listen to playlists you create.
How To Shuffle On Spotify
Songza is a playlist-oriented Internet radio product, but its licensing rules mean that users can't listen to playlists they create themselves.
This is also true for other streaming services that offer access to curated playlists. Usually, it's fine, especially when users are passively listening to tunes. Where it becomes problematic is if you've collected a bunch of tracks for an event, such as a holiday party. What's the point of having the ultimate holiday playlist if you can't even play it back on your own device?
Can Free Users Create Playlists on Mobile?
Yes. Free users can create their own playlists or add songs to existing playlists in the app; this means if you want to add a track from Spotify Discover to an existing playlist, you can do so without having to worry. You can also create new playlists with music or artists you come across.
How Do Ads Work on Mobile and Tablet?
Just as they do on the desktop and within Spotify Radio now. Interruptions and ads will come every five to six songs.
Should I Bother Paying for Spotify Premium?
This will totally depend on how you listen to music. If you mostly listen to playlists while on your phone, and avoid selecting albums and tracks, you may not feel the need to pay for Spotify Premium. What's more, if you use an iPad or Android tablet for most of your listening, you no longer need to pay to play any song you want.
Still, Spotify Premium continues to have advantages. On the smartphone side, the biggest advantage is that you don't have to deal with ads, and you can save music for offline listening; this is really useful when on an airplane or the subway. Spotify Premium users can also stream audio in higher quality, so if you're an audiophile (at least in the context of streaming music), you get higher fidelity sound.
Spotify told Mashable that getting rid of ads and offline playback are actually the two biggest reasons users upgrade to Spotify Premium. The goal of the new Spotify freemium offering is to encourage users to listen to as much music as possible.
'We've found that the more stuff we give users, the more users are willing to pay us,' Hellman said. It's a good point. I know I have personally found that the value in subscription music services really shows itself the more I use it. Having more mobile listeners gives Spotify a chance to convert more of those listeners into Premium subscribers.
How Do I Get Started Using the Free Mobile Offering?
Make sure you are running the latest version of Spotify for iOS or Android, and the option is available now. For free users, browsing artists or accessing your playlists will show an option to 'Shuffle Play.'
Turn Off Shuffle Play Spotify Free Music
On Android tablets and the iPad, you now have the ability to listen to any track you want at will.
Spotify Shuffle Play
Images: Spotify