Spotify brings playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks to United flights

United Airlines is expanding its in-flight entertainment catalog with audiobooks and video podcasts, courtesy of Spotify. The partnership with Spotify provides passengers with free access to more than 450 hours of curated playlists, audiobooks, and podcasts, including Good Hang with Amy Poehler, The Dave Chang Show, and The Comment Section with Drew Afualo.

This content is available now across more than 130,000 seat-based entertainment screens on United flights. Spotify says this is the first time it’s offered audiobooks and video podcasts onboard an airline, with the United partnership allowing passengers to access Spotify content without creating an account for the streaming service.

“Spotify has a huge audience and people love their content,” MileagePlus CEO Richard Nunn said in the announcement. “And now our customers can enjoy it all in a simple and easy way, at 35,000 feet.

United says it’s working on adding the ability for passengers to sign into their own Spotify accounts on the in-flight entertainment screen via their personal device. The feature is expected to be available in 2026 and will allow users to pick up where they left off on playlists, audiobooks, and podcasts, and enjoy video content for the latter on a large screen without setting up a tablet or laptop.

Passengers on United’s Starlink-equipped planes can already browse and stream Spotify on their own devices, alongside other services like YouTube and Apple Music. The upgraded in-flight Wi-Fi was introduced in March and can be accessed for free by logging into a MileagePlus loyalty program account, with streaming supported gate-to-gate.