Spotify Adds Long-Form Magazine Articles to Its Offering
- Martina
- 10 June 2026, Wednesday
In the face of intense competition and rising subscription prices, streaming platforms are working hard to introduce new features and diversify their offerings for users. Spotify’s newest content format addition: narrated long-form magazine articles.
Spotify Long-Form Articles: From Music to Podcasts to Audiobooks to Magazine Content
Over the years, Spotify has been extremely vocal about the various content formats it offers, particularly for Premium Users. Long gone are the days when the platform was solely music-oriented. Today, users can listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks in one place, watch music videos, or even train with the designated Fitness category, curated through an exclusive Peloton integration.
Now, as part of its continued push beyond music, Spotify is bringing together over 650 long-form magazine articles, narrated in audio, from publications including Rolling Stone, Vogue, Variety, The Atlantic, Billboard, Pitchfork, Vanity Fair, Vibe, GQ, and WIRED.
“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 Licensing Lead at Spotify Colleen Prendergast.
“By making Rolling Stone‘s journalism more accessible on Spotify, we’re excited to bring our storytelling to an even wider audience,” seconded the notion Julian Holguin, CEO of Rolling Stone.
Produced in-house by Spotify’s Audiobooks team, each narrated article is under two hours long, available in English in all markets where Spotify Audiobooks are supported, and accessible through the audiobooks section on the app. As Spotify disclosed in a TechCrunch article, the articles will use a mix of human and digital voice narration, with the platform clearly labeling AI-generated sections.
Spotify Premium users can listen to narrated magazine articles as part of their monthly audiobooks allowance, which ranges from 12 to 15 hours depending on their region and plan. Free users can purchase individual articles for $1.99 each.
In Spotify’s view, the magazine articles present shorter-form content and are intended to serve as a gateway to longer-form listening, such as audiobooks, much like podcasts.
It’s fair to say that both the audiobook and podcast businesses are booming for Spotify. According to the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call, over 390 million users watched a video podcast last year, marking a 54% YoY increase. Audiobooks appear to be growing even faster, with a 60% YoY increase in listening hours in 2025. The audiobook business has also expanded into 22 markets since its launch in the US in 2022.
Spotify’s Narrated Magazine Articles VS Apple News+
As for audio magazine content, Spotify appears to be moving in more direct competition with Apple News+, which has been offering professionally narrated magazine articles since 2020.
While Apple’s audio stories are narrated exclusively by professional voice actors and cover many of the same publications now available on Spotify, they are available only to Apple News+ subscribers. This means that Apple Music subscribers must pay for an additional subscription to access this type of content.
This could make Spotify more appealing to users who already consume long-form journalism alongside music and podcasts. However, whether narrated magazine articles will be a meaningful differentiator in the increasingly competitive streaming market remains to be seen.
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Martina is a Berlin-based music writer and digital content specialist. She started playing the violin at age six and spent ten years immersed in classical music. Today, she writes about all things music, with a particular interest in the complexities of the music business, streaming, and artist fairness.
