“Don’t cook a pot”: following social networks, streaming platforms also moved into the audio chat niche
In March and April, there were announcements of not only a new “audio function” of the largest social, but also music platforms. As it turns out example Clubhouse also pulled Spotify with it. However, this time it seems everything can be done without copying.
Again for “shopping”
The Spotify team is a leader in music streaming and beyond not the last player on the podcasting field – decided to go even further: to expand the range of audio services and the composition of the development team. In late March, it announced the purchase of Betty Labs, a startup whose services like Locker Room compete to some extent with the audio social network Clubhouse.
The Locker Room project is known for the fact that with its help listeners of live broadcasts can join the discussion of sports news and events related to specific championships, teams and players. In fact, his custom mechanics are not particularly different from what they offer. “club house”, And this is also an audio social network.
Previously invested in it by Google Ventures, Lightspeed venture capital fund and world famous athletes Kevin Durant and Andre Igudalaplaying in the NBA. However, the exact amount of funds that the startup managed to “raise” has not yet become public, as well as the value of the company in the framework of a recent deal with a streaming platform.
For the latter, this is just another acquisition in the lineup of the “one hundred millionth” show Joe Rogan, podcast production studios Gimlet media and Parcast, Anchor podcasting service, the podcasting network The ringer and numerous contracts with influencers like Addison Rai, Kim Kardashian and even the wife of the 44th President of the United States Michelle Obama…
Live streaming and more
The Locker Room capabilities will help the platform build influence in the audio content space. Mainly due to custom mechanics for interactive live streaming, which will migrate to Spotify products with some adaptation – probably not in the form of another Clubhouse clone. However, so far there is no and there can be no specifics on this score – the company stated this in the corresponding press release with a disclaimer exceeding the size of the announcement itself. The Spotify team announced plans to integrate other “purchases” and develop a variety of in-house developments at the event “Future formats of audio“.
In the coming years, the creative thought of the management and developers of the site is going to be directed to the design of new formats and ways of interaction between the audience. The first moment will presumably epitomize the transformation of podcasts into something more compact and similar to what Facebook is preparing for the launch, plus – the use of automated tools and capabilities of external partners like WordPress, where Anchor [принадлежаший Spotify] offers voice acting for text publications. The second direction most likely will not do without new options for content monetization – under pressure criticism by authors the platform has stepped up its efforts in this regard and the results are already there.
As the editors of Habr reported, the streaming platform – almost at the same time as Apple – presented the ability to publish paid audio content. The novelty mainly affects podcasters who prepare programs using Anchor. Now their listeners do not need to subscribe to third-party services like Patreon – Spotify has everything you need to conduct transactions on board. [у Apple все работает аналогичным образом]…
What’s next
Streaming wars are just gaining momentum – Spotify, with its innovation for podcasters, is presumably trying to bypass Apple’s commission, and the latter is increasingly using its own platform to make money on new monetization models, including audio broadcasts. In addition, Spotify is expanding into other markets such as car audio gadgets and aims to reach a segment of the audience that has not yet acquired embedded systems from Apple and other manufacturers.
How all these processes are progressing, what is known about them and what expert opinions are manifested on this score – we will discuss in more detail in our next article on Habré.
Additional reading in our Hi-Fi World:
Streaming: helping to become more popular or making music a marketing tool
Many are unhappy with the largest video hosting service, but continue to use it
Streaming services would like to find new approaches to working with music
“Playlist” has captured the minds of music publishers and podcasts
The podcast industry is becoming more like streaming TV shows and movies
