In the past few years, Spotify has expanded its content into podcasts in addition to a wide music library.
Now, the streaming giant is working on becoming a hub for live audio conversations. The company acquired Betty Labs, which is known within the industry for being the company behind Locker Room, a live sports audio app.
The decision comes as a fairly major move for Spotify, which looks at the acquisition as a way to allow creators to connect with audiences in a live, real-time manner. This might mean answering questions, live performances, or hosting an album premiere. This will be done on a rebranded version of Locker Room soon.
Another significant piece of news is that Spotify will eventually give anyone the ability to host a conversation in the app. This is something that puts Spotify in direct competition with other outlets like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Discord.
Spotify is playing around with the cost of some of these chats as some may be paid while others won’t cost anything.
Spotify sees this as a good way of adding in another aspect to their popular app, as many content creators already have been recording audio from their competitors and have then uploaded it to software to get it added to Spotify afterwards.
This is of course all part of the popular trend to bring customers a wider array of audio content. Facebook is also looking into a live audio feature while Amazon, Clubhouse and Spaces are all recent players in the space.
Overall, Spotify’s bet is that this acquisition will help it cross-promote its already existing content in music and podcasts and continue to keep it relevant in the streaming audio space. We’ll certainly be listening closely for more details about this as these new features are unveiled.
