Spotify is best known as a great online service for listening to all the online music your heart desires. If you're opting for the free version of the service, the vast musical collection comes at the price of a few ads here and there. But if you're opting for the paid version of the service, not only do you get an ad-free experience, you also get to take the music with you offline, by using Spotify's mobile app and selecting which playlists you want to listen to offline.
A fact that might not be as well known as offline listening is that you can take advantage of that feature with more than just music - with Spotify being home to audiobooks, standup comedy and more.
Rather than drown out chatter on your commute with music, why not opt for an audiobook instead? While Spotify itself has yet to delve into the audiobook world, thanks to the public domain, there's already a significant collection of classic novels, plays, poetry and more. And it doesn't end there. Spotify also houses a significant collection of standup comedy, with some of the biggest names in the business.
And if you're in the mood for something completely different - you can even listen to NASA recordings of the Apollo Missions and more.
Listen To Classic Literature
There is no shortage of classic literature that's in the public domain on Spotify. A quick search turns up a few of our favorite classics, and then some. There are a few ways you can find them. The first is to simply think of classic books you're interested in finding, and look them up. You can also use a great online service like the Gutenburg library to think of titles you want to look up.
Another great way to discover what's available on Spotify is to use the related artists feature. When you look up any given book, click on the artist name (in other words - the person who is reading the audiobook) and you'll find a bunch of related artists who have recorded audiobooks of their own.
To get you started, we've got a list of some of the most popular classic lit titles that are available on Spotify:
- Stevenson: Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde
- Austen: Pride & Prejudice
- Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities
- Hugo: The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
- Hardy: Far From The Madding Crowd
- Dostoyevsky: Crime & Punishment
- Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
- Carroll: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland
- Cooper: Last Of The Mohicans
- Dickens: Oliver Twist
- You'll also find a significant library of titles written by William Shakespeare.
Aside from novels, you'll also find a few interesting plays that are worth listening to, among them:
- Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
- Harold Pinter: The Caretaker
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The School for Scandal
There are also some great lists compiled by other people including a William Shakespeare list.
Listen To Vintage Radio
In addition to classic novels, you'll also find an interesting collection of vintage radioshows (complete with their original ads) featuring the likes of Errol Flynn and more. One vintage radio playlist has almost 2,000 tracks on it with shows including The Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes and more.
Listen To Comedy
In the mood for something a little less serious? Spotify's standup comedy collection is impressive and will leave you in stitches. Search for your favourites, check out related artists, or even start a radio station using one stand up comedian for an endless playlist of hilarity. The caliber of standup comedians you'll find on Spotify is impressive including:
- Maz Jobrani
- Eddie Izzard
- Robin Williams
- Bill Cosby
- Eddie Murphy
- Monty Python
Listen To NASA Missions
And in the spirit of Monty Python, and now for something completely different. An absolute hidden gem on Spotify is some NASA recordings, among them, recordings from The Apollo Missions.
- NASA – One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Mankind: Recordings From The Apollo Missions
- NASA – The Apollo Missions
The recordings are a fascinating peak into a world we rarely get to see and with Spotify's offline feature, you can take the NASA recordings with you everywhere you go.
Learn a Language
If you'd like to brush up your language skills, Spotify can be a useful companion to lessons you're taking elsewhere. With the app, Listen Language, you can find recordings that will help you learn English, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Swahili, Hebrew, Arabic and much much more.
Can you think of other interesting things to listen to on Spotify that aren't music? Let us know in the comments.