Spotify waives royalties for audiobooks authors

Spotify ownership audiobooks seller Findaway will no longer take a 20 percent cut of royalties for titles sold on its DIY Voices platform.

In a company blog post, Findaway said that it would “pass on cost-saving efficiencies” from its integration with the streaming service.

Last summer, Spotify finalised its $123 million purchase of Findaway in a bid to cement its position in the audiobooks business.

While it’s free for authors to upload their audiobooks onto Findaway’s Voices platform, the company normally uses an 80/20 pricing structure.

But that fee comes after sales platforms take their own 50 percent cut on the list price.

So under the old revenue split, an author who sold a $10 audiobook would have to give $5 to Spotify and $1 to Findaway. But moving forward, that same author will no longer have to pay the $1 distribution fee to Findaway when a sale is made through Spotify.

The move by Spotify and Findaway is likely a bid to draw more indie authors from Audible, which is currently its biggest competitor. But Spotify’s audiobooks business – which it launched last fall – still has a long way to go.