How you calculate audiobook useage!

[dougiedoodles]

Hey - massive audiobook fan and long time Spotify member, so delighted that you are offering them as part of Spotify. I use audiobooks a lot as they help me to get to sleep (focussing on listening to a story helps to stop me thinking about other stuff), but often I fall asleep while reading - which is fine - I just 'rewind' to the last place that I remember and then continue listening on my commute the following day. After listening 'Upgrade' by Blake Crouch (10 hours long), I was surprised to see I had reached my 15 hour audiobook limit - I suspect the time listening to the audiobook is based on total time (including time I have to 'rewind') - rather than unique time - so basically the time of the audiobook. I get that you have to calculate this somehow - I just wonder if there's a better way to do it to make it a better experience for people who use audiobooks in the same way as I do and will often fall asleep, then have to 'rewind'.

[dougiedoodles]

Hi @Ptkshona,

Thanks for posting your question! 

We count the listening time used based on each playback of an audiobook at normal speed. This means that if you adjust the speed of the playback, it won’t affect the amount of audiobook listening time that's included in your monthly allocation. For example, if you listen to a 5-hour audiobook at 2x speed, your audiobook listening time is reduced by 5 hours, since that’s the length of the book at normal speed, even if you finish the audiobook in 2.5 hours.

We hope this clear things up!

[dougiedoodles]

Hi there @dougiedoodles,

Thanks for posting on the Community!

All listening counts toward your monthly allotment of 15 hours, including the parts of the book you rewind. However, we can suggest that you turn on the sleep timer if you choose to listen to audiobooks before sleeping.

To turn it on, open the Now Playing view > tap the 3 dots > scroll down to Sleep timer. This way, the playback will stop directly after the set time ends.

We hope this helps! Cheers.

[thetarabee]

It's a trap. Counting rewind time in the audiobook allocations is simply pure greed. Spotify is going to penalise those who simply need to rewind, seriously? I've listened to one audiobook on here so far and it kept glitching...showing a total chapter time that was incorrect so I couldn't move the spot where i was at properly. It kept skipping to previous chapter and I ended up rewinding a chapter several times. This ate my minutes. I contacted Spotify and sent evidence in the form of screenshots. Nothing. Asked me to top up my hours. No thanks.

I also listen to audiobooks while multitasking LIKE SO MANY OTHERS and lose my focus at times.

Can you imagine saying you're providing an additional benefit to your top tier paying customers, but it's really a gimmick to make more money from them? 🤮

Also no response on the download option. 

[thetarabee]

Can you reply to the posts below re the download option? 

[ugliebettie]

So much dearer to top up in audible. It’s As cute free gimmick but I’d not waste a penny on top up hours … 

[alexrx]

I'm returning to Spotify after using A:::: Music which was free with Prime Anyway I'm finding the software harder to master then the competition but I guess I need to give is a chance ... I was hoping to get Better Quality on Play Back but maybe that's not possible on over the air streaming ... I used Spotify thru a BigJam Book on the 4th of July and a family member said you have to hear this band you will love them ( honestly I didn;t and spent the last 20 minutes trying to figure out how to block future suggestions fro Spotify on this Artist ..  When I swiched over I used Song Shift and found that combersome and felt I would have been happier and it would have been quicker to start Playlists from Scratch ...............I am looking forward to the 15 minutes of AudionBooks but now really confused... If a book is 16 minutes do I MISS the end ?? ANY FELLOW SPOTIFY CUSTOMER comments of Spotify Managemnt coments would be Very Much appreciated   Thanks again Neil

[ZiggiStarDust92]

You get 15 hours. 1 second more and you either have to pay a top up or wait for the next month. You'll miss the end 

[alexrx]

And where can i find the top up pricing ?

Thanks for the speedy reply

Neil

[Bee17]

My monthly plan just rolled over and I got 15hrs new audiobook listening time. I probably used 3hrs to finish an audiobook I had started and I check how much time I had left, and it told me I had used 8hrs. I don’t know how it arrived at that time used? 
Can this be fixed so I can get the five hours audiobook time back that was randomly taken please.

Plan

Premium

Device

iPhone 

My Question or Issue

[Audiosaur]

• As manager of our Premium family plan, I received a message telling me I had reached the limit for audiobook listening.  That seemed odd because I had listened to only about 3 hours of a book.  Checking my tracked hours on my Android app shows zero hours listened.  What gives?

[alexrx]

Hello All

this is Neil S I'm 5 years sober -- no wrong forum

I am a 5 year Amazon Music user who returned to Spotify Premium after being given a $  99 gift card and hoping that gets me a 12 month Premium Membership ?? I know the topic is AudioBook Usage and to that point I know that Premium now allows 15 hours of free listening from I don't know the rest.   SPOTIFY has always been upfront and honest about its platform but information on the AudioBook portion has been criptic  --How is the 15 hours measured ? If I purchase add on time is it only available in certain increments ? When does the TOP off expire ?  AS A LISTENER I feel the information could be explained or outlined in ONE (1) site. Spotify has never to my knowledge had bad press BUT I feel this topic is in the need of a polish job as I am getting a BAD Vibe here -- Just my 2 cents

[m7_uzyze-gy4d]

Im not getting 15 hours a months lucky if I get 6

[dougiedoodles]

On reflection, it feels to me like the problem is that you treat audiobooks in the same way that you treat music. If I listen to a Nina Simone track twenty times, then you should get paid twenty times for that - I love listening to Nina Simone and I should pay for it. No one is re listening an audiobook because they love it - books don't work that way - yes I might reread a favourite book after a while - I've done that with a handful of books in my lifetime, but no one is going back to a chapter of a book the next day because they loved it - it's because they have fallen asleep, or need to reread to get their head around a plot twist, or have forgotten something, or got confused with some narration. I get that fundamentally you are a music company, but you really need to treat / cost the two things separately in my opinion.