Spotify new features with audiobooks, better audio, translated podcasts and DJ function

Megan van der Wagt

Spotify is continuously working to give listeners the best experience and also works with other parties, such as Philips Hue. Spotify has announced four new features; Here you can read what these are, what the functions entail and whether they will also be available in the Benelux.

Audiobooks
In addition to music and podcasts, Spotify now adds a new aspect: audiobooks, also called audiobooks. The feature has been available in the United States for a while now, as part of Spotify Premium. You can listen to up to fifteen hours of books per month without paying extra. That amounts to about one book per month. However, Spotify has not yet confirmed that this feature will also come to the Netherlands. But we expect it, because it has now also been announced for Ireland. We will keep you informed.

DJ function
Music is used a lot on the TikTok platform. Songs are sped up and edited, making them popular with the TikTok audience. Spotify has looked at this and is therefore introducing the DJ function.
Spotify Premium users will likely be able to adjust the speed of songs and share this edited version with others. More complex remix features will then be reserved for a more expensive subscription that will be introduced soon.

Better audio
There has been talk about better audio quality for Spotify for some time now: Spotify HiFi was announced 3 years ago. Although other music services have long offered lossless audio, Spotify lags behind. It is certain that better audio will come to Spotify, but the form in which it will take is not yet known. Recently, it appeared in the code of the streaming service Music Pro. This may be the name of a new subscription, including music in lossless quality.

Translated podcasts
As mentioned earlier, Spotify is used for listening to music and podcasts. Since last year, the number of podcast creators and listeners has increased significantly and there are countless podcasts in different topics and languages.
Artificial intelligence makes it increasingly easier to translate podcasts while retaining the original voices. It then seems as if the podcasters speak Dutch or English, while the original podcast is in a different language. Spotify works together with OpenAI for this.
This function is not yet possible in the Netherlands, but this may not take long. However, the last news about this feature came out in September, so the state of affairs remains unclear.