Spotify just changed their TOS, giving them unprecedented rights to create "derivative works" from audiobooks
Spotify just changed their TOS, giving them unprecedented rights to create "derivative works" from audiobooks
StoryFair Audiobooks launches a better, fairer way to to buy audiobooks. On StoryFair, authors now receive the highest royalty anywhere.
They frame it as though it's for user content, more likely it's to train AI, but in fact it gives them the right to do almost anything they want - up to (but not including) stealing the content outright.
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I anticipate a LOT of audiobook authors and publishers aren’t gonna be ok with that.
I hope not! I hope they interpret it this way and are willing and able to take action, by removing their catalog or maybe even a class action lawsuit. 
They don't. The message right now is to boycott Spotify.
Except Spotify is one of the only hopes against Audible. Audible gives terrible deals to authors, if you sell your audiobook exclusively through audible they take a 60% cut of the sale, and if you sell through multiple audiobook stores they take 75%.
And that's just the official numbers, according to this source they actually pay out even less than that. The average author's cut for an exclusive title is only 21%, and for a non-audible exclusive is only 13%.
Large established authors get significantly better deals, but all the smaller authors desperately need audiobook rivals like spotify to be a viable alternative to Audible's monopoly death grip on the industry. So it's not as simple as "boycott spotify", spotify or someone else badly needs to succeed in getting a meaningful slice of the market.
Thankfully there are alternatives out there, and we should be using them.
When discussions like this happen I think it’s good to actually suggest alternatives!
I don’t listen to audiobooks, but a lot of people I know use libro.fm
Also your local library probably partners with Hoopla and/or Libby which allows you to borrow audiobooks straight to your PC/phone!
Like what?
I can't wait to hear what Brandon Sanderson says about this
That is if they are aware of it. How many time do you just hit accept on a TOS agreement
Maybe it’s time people start taking their business elsewhere to show they are not satisfied with this deal.
I saw this getting traction on Tik Tok a few days ago warning rightsholders they have until, I think, Mar 5th to pull their content from the platform.