Why Spotify’s new audiobook streaming could kill off reading forever

Chapters sold as ‘tracks’? Ad breaks between each paragraph? The streaming platform could fundamentally change the way we consume books, writes Professor Matthew Rubery – which means that it could change the way books are written, forever

Although Spotify is positioned to give listeners even more convenience, access, and options, streaming will be bad for audiobook fans in the long run (Spotify)

This week, the book world is gathering at Kensington’s Olympia exhibition centre for the London Book Fair, one of the largest events in international publishing. But this London Book Fair looks different than years past.

Why? Well, Spotify – the newest entrant into the literature market with its audiobook streaming offering – is everywhere you look, with a big sponsorship presence and participation on multiple panels on the future of audio.

And hear this: readers, authors and publishers should be very wary of any future with Spotify at the centre.