Spotify to trial audio books service

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Spotify is offering Chris Anderson’s new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price
, narrated by the author himself, free to all UK users.

It’s the first time Spotify has made an audio book available although they’re keen to stress that it’s only a trial – for the time being at least. “We’re going to trial it, see what people think and who knows, maybe this is the start of something new for us…” said Andres Sehr of Spotify.

Chris Anderson, the author of the hugely successful The Long Tail and current editor-in-chief of Wired is the perfect guinea-pig for the experiment. He is hugely influential in terms of the internet and web-culture and Free should appeal to a large number of Spotify users.

It’s quite a coup for Spotify as well. Free only been available for a few days in hard-copy and is sure to be a best-seller. It tells the story of new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods as the result of new technologies, such as the internet.

If you did want to buy Free in its hard-copy format, it’s available on Amazon for a bargain £8.54. The Long Tail is available in paperback for £6.69.

(via Spotify)