Findaway Voices by Spotify Is Shutting Down – What Authors Must Do Before August 1st

Are you using Findaway Voices to distribute your audiobook? Well, Findaway Voices by Spotify is going. Buh. Bye. So now what? If you're wondering what's happening with the big announcement from Spotify about Find a Way Voices by Spotify, this video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host here at Book Launchers tv. Book Launchers is your first choice for all things nonfiction writing, publishing and promoting. Findaway Voices by Spotify has been many independent authors go to source for getting their book onto Spotify Library distribution and reaching many other audiobook platforms beyond Audible. But recently Spotify made a huge announcement that Spotify by Authors is in and Find a Way Voices is out. But all the Findaway Voices distribution is moving to a company called In Audio. What is happening? Well, so starting August 1st, 2025, Findaway Voices by Spotify is being split in two. Yeah. Spotify for Authors will now directly manage distribution only to Spotify. Inaudio LLC will handle distribution to all other audiobook retailers like Apple Chirp, Overdrive and Libraries. It's a new company, but it's stepping into Findaway Voices shoes but will now operate as Voices by In Audio. So what's good about this? Well, Spotify for Authors offers enhanced tools like Analytics Marketing Dashboard, redempt code generation for authors that wanted to get in there and target Spotify user a little more. This could be a great opportunity with so many authors hosting their own podcasts and doing a lot of podcast interviews, more options to go deeper with the Spotify audience is probably going to be a big benefit. There's also the direct to Spotify distribution could mean better royalty rates if the revenue model favors authors. This is a big question and it's not answered. Many believe given how Spotify treats music artists, that it will not be financially positive for authors. But we shall see. Now the login and functionality for existing Findaway Voices users will largely stay the same. In Audio isn't starting from scratch. It's still pretty early, so a lot remains to be seen. But I'll tell you what I'm watching out for right now. I went through the terms of use on Spotify by Authors and there's nothing that grabbed me as too alarming. But I'm not a lawyer and these terms were as of May 1, 2025, so read them whenever you're watching this. But the one that you might want to pay attention to is that once you upload, you might not have easy flexibility to take it down. Have you had your coffee today. It took me a few cups to go through this, but here's why I'm saying it might not be easy. According to the distribution terms, you or your company may request that Spotify cease to distribute you or your company's distributed audiobook content at any time. Spotify will make commercially reasonable efforts to remove the distributed audiobook content within 30 business days of receipt of such removal notice, subject to these distribution terms. The terms also state notwithstanding anything to the contrary, Spotify shall be permitted to continue providing access to distributed audiobook content following a receipt of the removal notice a Users who purchased access to such distributed audiobook content on an a la carte basis prior to receipt of the removal notice and b Subscribers who access the distributed audiobook content through Spotify as a non ala carte basis prior to receipt of the removal notice, with such access for subscribers continuing for as long as commercially reasonably following receipt of the room will notice you still awake. Okay? This means even after you request removal, Spotify may continue to provide access to your audiobook for users who have already purchased or accessed it, potentially for an indefinite period deemed commercially reasonable. Which I do understand why they say this. Otherwise, a customer would probably have to be refunded. It's not like when someone buys your book but you decide you don't want to sell it anymore. You can go around to their house and take it back so they aren't going to rip it out of the ears of a customer. So I get this cause. But the process of removing an audiobook involves several steps, including navigating to the distribution settings, deselecting all distributor checkboxes, followed by republishing the changes. It's not a deal breaker for me at all. I understand its purpose. I'm just flagging it for you because we have a lot of authors that come to book launchers and ask for changes to their book and expect them to magically appear changed right away. And the reality is none of the platforms jump the minute you tell them to jump. The bigger issue with Spotify for me is still royalty murkiness. Spotify does not disclose the royalty formula for audiobooks, just like Kindle Unlimited does not, and that means unpredictable payouts. Also, right now there isn't any terms of use that I could find for in audio. Since we are not being directed to create an account there, I assume that those are coming and we'll be reviewing it before we create an account. So how is this all going to work? Well, you'll upload and manage audiobooks on Spotify through through a new portal called Spotify for Authors. They'll give you, as I mentioned, tools to monetize your audiobooks royalties based on a la carte sales or subscription pool models, monthly reports and royalty payments. If you are a Findaway Voices user right now, your audiobook outside of Spotify will shift to a new company called Inaudio. The Findaway Voices platform is becoming Voices by Inaudio, so your login will stay the same. Your audiobook availability should remain unchanged. Royalties for retailers other than Spotify will now come from In Audio starting August 1st. There's not much information yet about In Audio's legal terms or royalty policies beyond what they have said publicly, so stay alert for updates when the transition unfolds. Now, what should authors on Findaway Voices do right now? Well one. You can create your account on Spotify for Authors so you can go to authors.Spotify.com to view the catalog, set up distribution and manage royalties. STEP 2. You can plan to log into inaudio.com on or after August 1st using your existing Findaway Voices credentials. Complete the onboarding steps to continue distributing everywhere else beyond Spotify. Finally, step three Just as a precaution, you don't have to do this, but download everything from Findaway Voices your sales reports, royalty records, metadata before July 31, just in case there's hiccups. During the transition, Findaway Voices was one of the most author friendly platforms in audiobook distribution, but they're not the only game in town and this new split isn't necessarily bad, but it does mean new terms that you have to agree to by default unless you're proactive. So be proactive and remember your audiobook is a business asset so you should stay in control of it. And if all of these shenanigans are just too much for you, well you should know Author Republic is a great company and they have a lot of the same distribution that Findaway Voices does, so you can check them out as well. 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