Spotify live is dead
Streaming giant announces it's sunsetting its Clubhouse clone app
Spotify has announced the closure of its social audio app Spotify Live.
The streaming giant has said the app will shut down on April 30, seeing its foray into live audio chat come to a halt after just two years.
Spotify acquired Betty Labs, creators of sports audio platform Locker Room, in 2021. It was rebranded as Spotify Greenroom later that year, and in April 2022 it become Spotify Live and moved across to the main app.
It’s possible Spotify saw Clubhouse rocketing through the pandemic and recognised potential for social audio to fill the live-gig gap during Covid-enforced lockdowns. (Although the seemingly obvious live sets followed by chat between fans and artists never materialised, even when we were stuck indoors with time on our hands.)
For those of us watching the social audio landscape the demise of Spotify Live seemed inevitable. The closure of the Spotify Creator fund followed by the cancellation of a number of exclusive live shows gave hints it might not be around for long.
Spotify say it stills sees a future in live audio fan-artist interaction but I think that’s likely to be a more exclusive, possibly ticketed experience.
It feels like there was never any real belief in what they could do with Spotify Live. It was an idea waiting in the wings for its moment that missed its curtain call.
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We discussed all this, plus the the Spotify Live shutdown and more during this week’s #AllThingsAudio. You do not want to miss this week’s episode of All Things Audio.
We were joined by tech mentor and brand strategist @MissSuperNerd who dropped some truth bombs on the way social audio apps have been treating creators and how Spotify were never truly invested in social audio.
Follow All Things Audio wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you never miss an episode. Leave a rating and/or review to help more people find us.
A must for anyone interested in sound design and soundscapes. Mack Hagood interviews pioneering sound ecologist and composer Hildegard Westerkamp about her work. In this episode they discuss six of her compositions created between 1975 and 2005, with Hildegard offering insights into her process and thoughts about each piece.
“Treat every moment of every episode like it is the last chance you’ll ever have to do this thing that we all love so much. Treat every moment you turn on a microphone as if it were the last chance you’ll ever have to capture the human experience. And every time you speak, treat it like it is the last opportunity you’ll ever have to be heard.”