Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs
This Legal Counsel role sits at the intersection of content licensing and product strategy—an increasingly important seam in SaaS as platforms expand beyond pure software into rights-based media offerings. The remit is anchored in negotiating and structuring audiobook licenses while advising commercial teams, which reflects how SaaS businesses operationalise partnerships as a core “feature” of the product experience.
From a SaaS career perspective, the position offers repeated exposure to the mechanics of scaling a catalogue-driven digital service: standardising contracting approaches, managing risk across many counterparties, and translating evolving product initiatives into workable contractual frameworks. The day-to-day collaboration with business and product stakeholders mirrors how in-house legal functions influence roadmap decisions, go-to-market constraints, and the feasibility of new distribution models.
This role is best suited to a lawyer who prefers being embedded with commercial operators rather than working solely as a back-end reviewer. It will fit someone comfortable acting as a subject-matter lead, balancing pragmatic deal-making with clear guidance on copyright and licensing obligations, and maintaining momentum across multiple negotiations and internal touchpoints.
The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.
Job Description
We are seeking a Legal Counsel with strong audiobook licensing experience to join our Legal Licensing & BD Team. As legal counsel in our legal audiobook licensing team you will work closely with our publisher partnership team on the business side, negotiating and drafting audiobook licenses with major and independent book publishers and providing day-to-day legal input on business and strategy related to Spotify’s audiobook initiative. Our work is cutting edge, fast-paced and always evolving, so we are looking for an innovative, dynamic and proactive problem-solver to join our team.
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What You'll Do- Provide strategic, tactical legal advice related to audiobook rights in a creative, business-centric way.
- Support and advise our publisher-facing and author teams on legal audiobook licensing matters.
- Structure, draft, and negotiate audiobook license agreements.
- Serve as a subject matter expert on the legal obligations related to audiobook content.
- Collaborate with internal legal and product teams to assess new audiobook initiatives and innovations in relation to contractual obligations with external publishing partners
- Act as the day-to-day legal support for Spotify’s commercial relationship with top book publishers globally!
Who You Are- US or UK qualified lawyer with 7+ years of relevant law firm and/or in-house counsel transactional experience.
- Excellent legal analytical skills and strong working knowledge of copyright law and legal issues relating to the audiobook space, including experience negotiating and drafting complex content licensing agreements between digital services and book publishers.
- Strong commercial acumen with a practical, business-oriented approach to problem-solving and ability to effectively counsel business teams by providing pragmatic, commercial and timely advice.
- Ability to be nimble and work in a fast-paced environment with changing needs and demanding timelines.
- An excellent communicator who excels at relationship building and expectation management.
- You have strong written, verbal communication and presentation skills and the ability to express thoughts logically and succinctly.
- You are a self-starter with a proven track record of executing complex projects and have solid organizational and project management skills.
- You embody Spotify’s values (Innovative, Collaborative, Sincere, Passionate, Playful) and demonstrate a Growth Mindset.
- You are passionate about audiobooks and invested in contributing to the growth and success of authors and the format at large on our platform.
- Spanish language proficiency welcome.
Where You'll Be- This position is located in either New York, Miami or London, UK.
- We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! There will be some in-person meetings, but it still allows for flexibility to work from home.
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The United States base range for this position is $170,366.00 - $243,380, plus equity. The benefits available for this position include health insurance, six-month paid parental leave, 401(k) retirement plan, monthly meal allowance, 23 paid days off, paid flexible holidays, and paid sick leave. These ranges may be modified in the future.
