Audiobook Licensing & Partnerships Manager

Marketing, Media & Creative · Product Management · Business Analysis

In short

Spotify is seeking an Audiobook Licensing & Partnerships Manager in Tokyo to lead relationships with Japanese publishers. You will build the publisher portfolio, secure catalogue content, and manage commercial negotiations to grow the audiobook business in Japan.

Responsibilities

Map the Japanese publishing and audiobook landscape and identify priority publishers, rights holders, and catalogue opportunities.
Build a strong pipeline of major and independent publishers, and take partnerships from first conversation through negotiation, agreement, and onboarding.
Lead commercial and licensing negotiations, including distribution terms and content licensing budgets, and design creative deal structures that improve economics and share risk.
Identify and prioritize the audiobook catalogues and titles that matter most to listeners in Japan, using data, financial models, and market insights.
Own long-term publisher relationships, aligning on shared goals and running regular performance reviews informed by data and partner feedback.
Partner with operations and publishers on catalogue onboarding, metadata readiness, and smooth content delivery, resolving issues that affect partners or listeners.
Represent publishing partners internally, working with product, editorial, growth, operations, and cost management teams on launch priorities and long-term improvements.
Stay close to developments in the Japanese publishing and audiobook market and turn them into new partnership and growth opportunities.

Requirements

Full professional proficiency in Japanese and English, with the ability to lead complex commercial negotiations in both languages.
Experience in licensing, partnerships, business affairs, or business development in digital content (books, audiobooks, music, podcasts, video, or TV).
Track record of managing complex commercial relationships with rights holders.
Comfort assessing catalogues, interpreting performance data and financial models, and managing budgets to balance partner value, cost, and long-term growth.
Confident, collaborative negotiator who finds solutions that work for both Spotify and its partners.
Ability to take ownership, build relationships and opportunities from the ground up, and remain steady in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
Ability to balance immediate launch priorities with building a sustainable long-term publisher strategy.

Desired Qualifications

Knowledge of the Japanese book publishing and audiobook ecosystem, including publishers, rights holders and distribution models, and an established network in the industry is preferred.
Understanding of licensing and commercial models between rights holders and digital platforms, and experience leading or supporting negotiations in a digital content environment.

Benefits

Extensive learning opportunities, through our dedicated team, GreenHouse.
Flexible share incentives letting you choose how you share in our success.
Global parental leave, six months off - for all new parents.
All The Feels, our employee assistance program and self-care hub.
Flexible public holidays, swap days off according to your values and beliefs.

Skills

LicensingPartnershipsNegotiationBusiness DevelopmentData AnalysisFinancial Modeling

#audiobooks#publishing#licensing#partnerships#japan#tokyo#business development#negotiation#content management#digital content

About Spotify

Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity—by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it. Spotify transformed music listening forever when it launched in Sweden in 2008. Discover, manage and share over 70m tracks for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features including offline mode, improved sound quality, and an ad-free music listening experience. Today, Spotify is the most popular global audio streaming service with 365m users, including 165m subscribers…

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