Lost audiobook hours up by falling asleep. Re-listen or timer feature might help?

[Kmykmykmy]

I love the new audiobook free hours system but I was devastated to find out I ran out of hours in less than a week because I fell asleep at the start of a book!

Could you make a feature that lets you re-listen to chapters you've listened to in the past week for free?  I fell asleep at chapter 7 but the app says I listened to 38!

Or maybe a timer for audiobooks that checks to see if you're still listening? (Kind of like the Netflix "are you still watching?" feature)

I'm sure I'm not the only person who has used up all their hours accidentally. 😞 

Hope you can help!

[AlejaR]

Hey @Kmykmykmy,

Thanks for posting in the Community and welcome.

We hope you don't mind us moving your post out of the ideas section to one of our Help boards as it fits better here.

That being said, we'd like to add some insights here. Keep in mind that it’s already possible to set a timer while listening to your audiobooks. To do it, go to the Now playing view, and there, at the bottom-right of the screen you'll see the timer:

When the icon is highlighted in green, you can be sure the timer is active. You can set different options for your timer:

At the top you'll see the time left for your timer. If you're having inconveniences with finding the sleep timer, please let us know. Remember the sleep timer feature is currently available only on mobile device app versions.

We value every piece of feedback you share with us, but it's important to follow our Idea Exchange guidelines when posting your suggestions. If you have more than one idea, you can make a new idea submission for each one. This way we’ll know exactly which idea folks are voting for. Remember no pricing, subscription or content related requests can be accepted as we can influence those.

Hope this clears things up. If you have any questions or need a hand with anything else, we're always a post away.

[Rachael_88]

I have had the same issue (fell asleep and missed two hours with no intention of falling asleep so hence no timer set) and I think something like allowing your customers to listen back to the same audio without reducing the hours could be a positive solution. It could even be restricted that you must re-listen within a certain time period of x hours or x days, noting the concerns Spotify will have around account sharing.

To be honest, I have had to rewind a LOT for different reasons like getting distracted and realising I zoned out for the last few minutes, not understanding what the narrator said the first time, or forgetting to pause while I order my coffee. I also skip back a few minutes when I start listening to a book for the first time in a few hours/days as a bit of a reminder on where I left off. So pretty frustrating as a customer that it is being taken off my total listening time. Would love a fair solution!

[AndyK1]

Totally agree, I relisten for all the above reasons, and registering to the part you slept through seems eminently fair to me. There's not even really any need for a time limit as the chances you are account sharing with the exact taste in books is pretty low I'd have thought. If there was one it would need to be more than a week as I can easily go a week without a chance to listen to the book I'm reading.

The sleep timer is not a solution for many, as first of all it has to occur to you in advance that you might fall asleep without pausing, and secondly if I avoid taking my phone to bed with me and listen on a TV or Alexa instead, there's no sleep timer. It's a partial solution even for those using a phone.

[Lindsayeei]

I also lost hours falling asleep while listening to my audiobook. I also sometimes lose sections of a book when i'm at work at get pulled away for different tasks and have to relisten. The hours should only count as credits towards the hours of the book, not the hours you listen. It's absolutely ridiculous. I have and hour and 15 minutes left on my book, and I can't get a credit back for it. It's an absolutely ridiculous, inflexible policy. You're better off just buying the book on Audible since Spotify's handling of "listening hours" and credits sucks. 

[1251430551]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

Device

(iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy 9, Macbook Pro late 2016)

Operating System

(iOS 10, Android Oreo, Windows 10,etc.)

My Question or Issue

I have been a longtime Spotify premium customer and really cause my monthly Audiobook hours. Last night, I was looking for options for my next audiobook. I never started one but somehow one ran all night burning 8 hours of my listening time. I messaged support this morning and they were not helpful or understanding at all. I even had it escalated. It’s shocking their remedy was “sorry, your hours renew at the end of the month.” You’d think they would have an auto shut off or something. It’s almost like they planned it to work this way so people would run out of hours and then purchase additional. I’ve never reached out to support before so I thought they’d be accommodating. Anyone else experience this?