The Society of Authors (SoA) has said it is “deeply concerned” about Spotify’s new audiobook provision. The industry body cited “the devastating effect that music streaming has had on artists’ incomes”, and expressed its fear that authors may suffer in a similar way.
“The streaming of audiobooks competes directly with sales and is even more damaging than music streaming because books are typically only read once, while music is often streamed many times,” a statement from the SoA read.
At the beginning of October, the Bookseller reported that “all of the major book publishers” had agreed limited streaming deals with Spotify. Since 4 October, Spotify Premium subscribers in the UK and Australia have been able to access to up to 15 hours of audiobook content per month, from a catalogue of more than 150,000 titles.
“As far as we are aware, no authors or agents have been approached for permission for such licences, and authors have not been consulted on licence or payment terms,” the SoA said. “Publishing contracts differ but in our view most licences given to publishers for licensing of audio do not include streaming. In fact, it is likely that streaming was not a use that had been invented when many such contracts were entered into.”
Yara Rodrigues Fowler, named earlier this year as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, said that she “wasn’t consulted at all” before the audiobook of her debut novel Stubborn Archivist appeared on the streaming app. Her agent, Imogen Pelham, added: “The key issue is the total obscurity of the deal. It’s impossible to understand what the benefit is supposed to be for authors.” Author and historian Greg Jenner tweeted that he only learned about the Spotify deal “when a friend found both of our audiobooks on Spotify, and we had no idea”.
Literary agent Jonny Geller confirmed that he and his colleagues at the agency Curtis Brown were not approached before the Spotify deal was concluded. “That is certainly unusual as audio rights are an important and growing part of an author’s work and income,” he said. “We will look closely at the deals being offered by the publishers to make sure the royalty offered is subject to purchases of each audiobook and not how long someone may or may not listen to it.”
“We do not want to follow the disastrous path the music industry went down,” he added. For years, musicians have been complaining that they are unable to make a living via digital music royalties because of reported low levels of remuneration from streaming platforms. Earlier this year a parliamentary report called for the UK government to streamline its policymaking in creative industries, in order to make the industry fairer for British musicians.
The SoA’s chief executive Nicola Solomon said that “the fact that all main publishers have signed similar deals with Spotify indicates that this has been in discussion for some time. So why have authors and agents not been consulted?”
“How will earnings from these streaming deals be calculated?” she went on to ask. “How can we ensure that such deals do not compete with sales and that authors are fully remunerated. What will it mean for longer term earnings? What protections are publishers putting in place against piracy and unrestrained uses?”
“We urgently need the publishers involved to have the conversations with authors and agents now which they should have had before these deals were made.”
In addition to seeking author and agent approval of these deals, the SoA is calling for publishers to provide a number of protections for authors, including negotiating “an appropriate share of the receipts on a clear and equitable payment model” and ensuring “that licences include safeguards to prevent pirating of authors’ and narrators’ works and voices including for use in AI systems”.
Pan Macmillan said it is “always interested in opportunities to sell more of our licensed audio product”.
“Of course we have carefully reviewed our contracts, only making titles available to Spotify where we are cleared for distribution as streamed audiobooks,” a representative from the publisher said. “We are excited by the possibility of Spotify opening up new audiences for audiobooks.”
According to Penguin Random House’s global website, the UK’s biggest publishing house is “excited” to have its titles included in Spotify’s catalogue, and it describes the 15 hours per month model as comparable to token models on existing services such as Audible, where members receive one credit for an audiobook. “We’re thrilled by this exciting opportunity to bring our authors’ works – and voices – to Spotify’s 220 million paid subscribers,” the statement read.
David Kaefer, vice-president of business affairs at Spotify, told the Bookseller earlier this week that each publisher had agreed to a slightly different contract. “There is a pooling model for a segment of our partners and generally it’s partners who are slightly smaller scale,” he said. “Some people, particularly larger providers, wanted to do something different.” Such pooling models would give publishers a percentage of the total revenue Spotify receives for its audiobooks.
Spotify has not yet responded to the Guardian’s request that it addresses the SoA’s concerns directly.
