In a bid to attract new users and retain existing ones, Spotify introduced 15 hours of free audiobook listening per month from October last year for paid subscribers.

Today, one quarter of paid users in the UK, US and Australia have started listening to audiobooks as part of their subscription.

Spotify states that 57% of users are 18-34 years-old, which suggests the new format is appealing to younger listeners.

Spotify says audiobook listeners spend an additional two and a half hours in the app within 14 days of starting a book.

To further boost the number of audiobook listeners the company is set to roll out more tools like an author-oriented dashboard.

Book publishing partners have also been encouraged to share content, when authors appear on podcasts, allowing the company to also promote them on podcast pages.