Spotify, on Tuesday, May 26, announced a new feature allowing users to stream narrated magazine articles on its platform. The move comes as the company continues to expand its audio offerings beyond music and podcasts. The feature aims to make long-form journalism accessible in an audio format for listeners who prefer consuming stories while commuting or multitasking.
Spotify said the new features, called ‘Articles’, will bring narrated versions of magazine stories from several major publishers to Spotify users.
The company has added more than 650 English-language articles from publications including Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, Vogue, Variety, Billboard, Vibe, GQ, WIRED, Vanity Fair, and Pitchfork.
Each narrated article is under two hours and is produced by Spotify’s in-house team. Premium users will be able to access the articles as part of their monthly audiobook allowance alongside their existing audiobook library. For free users, a payment of $1.99 must be made to purchase individual articles.
The music streaming platform said the move is aimed at giving users a more flexible way to consume long-form content. The company also noted that shorter narrated articles could act as an entry point for listeners who may later explore longer-form audio content.
“With Articles, we’re introducing long-form journalism in audio as a natural extension of the music, podcasts, and audiobooks people already come to Spotify for, focused on topics we know they love,” said Colleen Prendergast, Licensing Lead at Spotify Audiobooks.
“By making Rolling Stone’s journalism more accessible on Spotify, we’re excited to bring our storytelling to an even wider audience,” said Julian Holguin, CEO of Rolling Stone, who described the collaboration as a “natural synergy” between the two platforms.
Spotify believes its discovery and personalisation features can help media publishers and magazine partners to connect with listeners most likely to engage with their content.
The feature also reflects Spotify’s broader push into AI-driven content. In recent weeks, the company rolled out AI-generated podcasts and AI-powered audiobook creation tools for authors, support for AI covers and remixes, as well as non-AI additions such as fitness-focused content.
(This article has been curated by Shivani P Menon, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
