Does the world need another social media app? According to the folks at Amazon Amp, the answer is an ecstatic “Yes!”
Remember Clubhouse? Near the beginning of the pandemic, Clubhouse became the hot social media platform people needed in their lives, offering drop-in audio conversations and unique access to celebrities. The hype was so great that virtually every major digital company has tried to copy Clubhouse’s success, and Amazon is no exception.
This month, Amazon gave the world Amp, a clubhouse competitor with one unique feature: music licenses. Unlike Clubhouse and all of its knock-offs, Amp users can choose from millions of free-to-use songs to include in their broadcasts. In other words, it gives people the ability to host their own radio show without ads or fancy equipment. Users can even take calls from their audience.
Cool as it may be, the idea behind Amp is not necessarily new. As host James Shotwell explains in this Music Biz update, the concept of turning everyone into a DJ has been tried multiple times over the last decade. Each time, a small portion of the population adapts to the new technology, but everyone else ignores it. Eventually, over time, the hype dies, and people move on.
Will Amp be an exception to this trend? Can Amazon give the world a good reason to download another social media app? Let’s discuss.
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
As competition in the audio conversation space rises, Clubhouse hopes to retain its creative community with a new, fan-powered monetization feature.
Clubhouse, the wildly successful and exclusive social media based around audio conversations, is making it easy for creators to earn money on its platform. A new tool called Clubhouse Payments recently entered the testing phase. The feature will allow users to send money directly to creators through Clubhouse, and the company is promising not to take a commission on the exchange.
Here’s how it works:
To send a payment in Clubhouse, just tap on the profile of a creator (who has the feature enabled) and tap “Send Money”.
Enter the amount you would like to send them. The first time you do this, you’ll be asked to register a credit or debit card.
100% of the payment will go to the creator. The person sending the money will also be charged a small card processing fee, which will go directly to our payment processing partner, Stripe. Clubhouse will take nothing.
Clubhouse Payments in action.
Clubhouse is doing everything in its power to build and retain its community. With the recent news that Spotify will launch a direct competitor, the social media platform is likely feeling pressured to prove its long-term value. The existence of Clubhouse Payments sends a message to creators that the service will support their work. The decision to forgo any commissions from payments infers that the company hopes to nurture those relationships as much as possible.
Creator monetization, with a cut for the platform, has led to the growth of large businesses. Cameo, a startup that sends personalized messages from creators and celebrities, takes about a 25% cut of each video sold on its platform. The startup reached unicorn status last week with a $100 million raise. OnlyFans, another platform that helps creators directly raise money from fans in exchange for paywalled contact, is projecting $1 billion in revenue for 2021.
With Spotify recently making headlines denying requests that they pay creators more, Clubhouse Payments’ timing is perfect. However, whether or not the company remains a fixture of the cultural conversation remains to be seen.
Spotify continues its quest to dominate the audio space by acquiring the company behind the fast-rising Locker Room app.
The day we predicted less than a week ago has already come to pass. The Verge reports that Spotify is acquiring Betty Labs, the company behind the live sports audio app Locker Room. Details of the purchase are not available at this time.
As a result of the acquisition, Locker Room will stay live in the App Store but will be rebranded with a different name in the future on iOS and, eventually, Android with a broader focus on music, culture, and sports content. It’s clear that Spotify sees real-time audio interactions as the future of conversation online. A tool like Locker Room is perfect for hosting album premieres, conversations with fans, and breaking entertainment news.
Gustav Söderström, chief R&D officer at Spotify, tells The Verge that Spotify will let anyone host conversations — not just approved creators — meaning its app will directly compete with all of the various live audio apps currently on the market, including Twitter Spaces, Clubhouse, and Discord. Although he says Spotify-employed creators won’t be required to go live only on Spotify’s app, he thinks it’ll be a “great compliment” to their existing Spotify audiences. Still, the two apps will remain separate.
“But who knows,” adds Söderström. “Maybe we’ll integrate some of these features or all of these features in the future.”
Our YouTube channel, Music Biz, recently covered how a Clubhouse-like feature could benefit Spotify’s long-term goals of total audio dominance. Check it out:
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
Combining two of the biggest audio-focused apps on the planet seems like a no-brainer, but will it actually happen?
The competition for listener attention and money in the crowded audio space is fierce. With virtually all streaming platforms offering the same songs, the only thing that can separate each brand is in the features they offer. Podcasts alone are not enough. High-fidelity recordings are not enough. The companies that rise above in 2021 and beyond need to be thinking outside the box, and it looks like Spotify may be doing just that with its latest activity.
Recently, Spotify Daniel Ek participated in a Clubhouse event with Mark Zuckerberg that seemed to reveal his interest in audio-driven social technology. He then confirmed this belief in an interview with The Verge where he stated:
“I think that there’s a number of different elements of what social audio or Clubhouse even is. So I think on the one end, you’re seeing the interaction between two or more people talking, and obviously, if you think about podcasts today, that’s typically the format that’s working pretty well there, too. So I’m not surprised that that’s working.
I’m also not surprised that social features, users to users interacting with each other, are working. So it is an interesting space, and it’s definitely something that we’re keeping an eye on. Long-term, though, I think the broader shift that has been true with the internet has been most of the hours of consumption, we believe, will be moving from linear to on-demand. Meaning consumers should be able to consume whatever content that they want on their terms and not necessarily be beholden to someone else’s schedule. So I think it’s a really interesting format from a creation perspective, but I suspect that from the consumption perspective, most of the time consumed will still be on-demand which is what Spotify is known for today.“
The interest Ek — and by extension, Spotify — has in Clubhouse doesn’t stop there. In the last week, the streaming service has asked users with ad-supported streaming subscriptions to offer their thoughts on Clubhouse. The survey ends with a notice that the company will likely have more questions about Clubhouse soon.
But what does this mean? Two ideas that come to mind:
Spotify is considering acquiring Clubhouse.
Spotify is preparing to launch a native version of Clubhouse.
In the latest Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explains the latest rumors and argues that combining these two wildly popular apps could mark the dawn of a new age in music consumption and conversation. Check it out:
Spotify — or any streaming service — offering a native version of Clubhouse could be a pivotal moment in digital music evolution. For the first time, artists would host interactive fan events in the same place where their music is available for consumption. Rather than pointing fans from IG live, Zoom, or Twitch to yet another platform, everything an artist needs to engage with fans would be in one place.
Only time will tell what happens between these apps, but given Ek’s interest it seems likely something will develop in the months and years ahead. Stay tuned.
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
Clubhouse is the must-have social media app of 2021 that’s all-in on audio, but it’s leaving people with disabilities behind.
Clubhouse is the most popular new social media app to launch since TikTok. Every day, thousands join the invitation-only platform to participate in drop-in audio chats, and thousands more are searching online for someone who can grant them access. Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and numerous music industry influencers have already hosted successful Clubhouse events, and more people in power will no doubt use it to reach content consumers soon.
But Clubhouse has a big problem on its hands. Despite being the hot new app of 2021, the voice-focused platform creates unnecessary hurdles for people with speech, hearing, and vision-related disabilities. As one writer for Forbes put it, the app is now so exclusive that it excludes thousands of disabled people with no evidence of corrective developments on the horizon.
In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explains the utility of Clubhouse, the drawbacks to its UI, and ways the company can improve its service to make it more enjoyable for a more diverse audience.
Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.
