YouTube in talks with publishers over potential audiobook service – TradingView

YouTube in talks with publishers over potential audiobook service  TradingView

YouTube, the video-streaming platform owned by Alphabet’s Google NASDAQ:GOOG, has held discussions with publishers in recent months about developing an audiobook offering that could launch next year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.The company has considered… YouTube, the video-streaming platform owned by Alphabet’s Google GOOG, has held discussions with publishers in recent months about developing an audiobook offering that could launch next year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The company has considered bundling the service with YouTube Premium, its ad-free subscription offering that starts at $15.99 a month and includes access to music and videos. It remains unclear how YouTube GOOG would display audiobooks on its platform or whether users would be charged for individual titles.

The move would bring YouTube into a competitive audiobook market dominated by Spotify SPOT and Amazon’s AMZN Audible. Publishing-industry executives see an opportunity to reach the platform’s large audience while generating revenue from books, as unauthorized audio versions of published works increasingly appear on YouTube. Audiobooks have been one of the strongest-performing segments of the book market in recent years. Revenue from digital audiobook sales exceeded $1 billion in 2025, compared with $265 million in 2016, according to the Association of American Publishers. The potential offering would add to YouTube’s subscription strategy, which