Read less, listen more? You can now have a magazine article read to you while folding the laundry or grocery shopping. The streaming service Spotify on Tuesday announced it’s experimenting with narrated long-form magazine articles as its latest format.
Spotify subscribers can now expand their listening experience with more than 650 long-form articles on the platform, available in English, alongside music, podcasts and audiobooks. Spotify is partnering with publications such as Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, Wired, Vanity Fair and Pitchfork to provide its curated selection of magazine journalism. Spotify’s in-house audiobooks team produced the narrated articles.
Spotify Premium subscribers can access the articles alongside the platform’s existing audiobook catalog. Articles are part of the 15 hours of listening time Premium subscribers receive each month (for reference, an Individual Spotify Premium subscription currently runs $13 per month). If you’re using the free version of Spotify, you can buy individual narrated articles for $2 each.
According to Spotify’s announcement, the new format “will allow people to trial shorter, less intimidating listens, opening the gateway to explore longer-form listening like books.” Spotify said audiobook listening hours grew 60% from 2024 to 2025, and almost half of audiobook consumers started listening within the last 12 months.
In other Spotify news, the streaming service has a new partnership with Universal Music Group that will soon let you remix songs using AI for an additional price. Spotify also recently added artist verification badges, a feature to support independent booksellers and dropped new perks for Premium subscribers, including advance concert tickets.
The music streaming service is celebrating 20 years, which is why it’s temporarily donning a disco-ball icon in Apple iOS. If you’re among those who disliked the new icon, the original logo should be returning to your iPhone this week.
