Spotify’s profit margin is up, and the last quarter was the most profitable three-month period ever for the company. Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, thinks profit margins will continue to look good going forward because audiobooks don’t require as much upfront investment as podcasts, plus he describes audiobook costs as more variable than music and podcasts. Is that a good thing for publishers and authors? Hard to say. The math around all this remains fuzzy, and big publishers aren’t really talking specifics, except to tout digital audio growth. Learn more.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
