Spotify wants to delete audiobooks because it says they are pushing up its costs

Spotify said it is in talks with publishers to try and increase the proportion of audiobook revenue it keeps, in a bid to offset the rising costs of the business.<br><br>The company is concerned about the rising costs of audiobooks, which it said are around 1.8 times more expensive to produce than podcasts, and there is growing competition from Amazon.<br><br>Spotify has said it wants to delete audiobooks that are not performing well, as costs of the business are expected to rise over the holiday season.<br><br>The company’s content boss, Alex Norström, said: “There’s a traditional publishing industry out there that has a different pay structure than what we have. ” They pay more, but they also take more of the rights.<br><br>“In our case, they can sell it to others as well, and we don’t take a large share,” he said.<br><br>He emphasised that Spotify’s target is to be the number two player by showing growth, not necessarily to be the largest.<br><br>Mr Norstrom said: “We’re trying to focus on profitability. We want to make sure the creators make money, the publishers make money, and we make money.<br><br>“I don’t think we’re out there to spend the most money. I think we’re out there to have the best product.”<br><br>Spotify admits that competition in the audiobook market is more intense than it was in the podcast market.<br><br>Spotify has set a target of earning $1 billion in gross margin in 2025 from its audiobook division. <br><br>Mr Norstrom has said he remains optimistic that the business will be profitable in the next decade.<br><br>However, he admitted that Spotify still has a lot of work to do in order to achieve it.<br><br>He said: “We have to show that this is a healthy business. If we can’t show that, we can’t do it. We have to make sure that we have the right pay structure, the right incentives we have to make sure that we have the right growth and the right demand.”