Spotify Audiobooks?

It's Spotify who would have to modify the code to show podcasts. 

Its weird, its a deliberate decision by Spotify to NOT support Podcasts over Sonos, though there are clues left in their SMAPI implementation that indicate a half-assed attempt.

Its weird because Spotify have invested a lot of $ in their podcasts, and Sonos added a bunch of podcast features to the app (that only the BBC seem close to using much of right now).

Hmm.  Spotify certainly does seem to expose audiobook information over their published API (https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/reference/get-an-audiobook).  I have no idea how Sonos integrates with Spotify, but I’d assume it’s through that API?  Seems like it should be possible for Sonos to playback audiobooks through Spotify..

Not sure how podcasts apply here, though I see that Spotify oddly does not expose podcast info through the API.  That does seem silly.

Sonos has written the API (see the Sonos partners page).  Spotify implements that API on a server, and decides which content they expose to it. Sonos then shows you the data that Spotify chooses to share.  Sonos has no control over what Spotify chooses to expose. 

Ah, weird.  You would think that it would be the other way around; that Sonos would consume the API provided by Spotify rather than requiring Spotify to implement an API specified by Sonos, given that Sonos is the one selling the product (and looking to leverage the integration on behalf of their customers).  Ok, thanks for the clarification.

You are kidding, right? So you expect Sonos to code against ~80 different service APIs in four different apps? And keep them all maintained?

This is how they started, with Pandora and Rhapsody as I recall. It quickly became unscalable (that and the Rhapsody API was an enormous piece of junk) , so they invented an API that anyone could use.

It sure seems to me that Sonos isn’t the only “one selling the product (and looking to leverage the integration on behalf of their customers).” That pretty much describes every audio service looking for hardware manufacturers to offer their product.

No need to be rude.  Sonos is the client consuming Spotify’s service; the expectation I would have is that the client would integrate with the service’s API.  The counter argument here is that Spotify should be on the hook to write an integration for every brand of “smart speakers” out there?  I was merely expressing my surprise that that’s the way it works here.

Spotify is surviving, as far as I can see, by covering all bases, by keeping ahead of the rest re innovation, eg with Connect, and ensuring their product is available and accessible everywhere it possibly can be. With of course the one exception of Lossless!
 

so it is surprising they’ve not offered their audiobooks to Sonos yet, particularly, as contralav has said, as they’ve invested so much money in audiobooks.

I went ahead and submitted an enhancement request over on the Spotify community site; we’ll see if it gets any traction.  I’m a little surprised no one had already requested this; it’s really annoying to have to resort to bluetooth streaming or Airplay to play my audiobooks on my Sonos system.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/Sonos-Other-Add-audiobook-playback-to-Sonos-Spotify-app/idi-p/5541077