With streaming becoming the new way music is listened, Spotify finds itself competing against numerous competitors who want to carve out a market share of their own in this highly growing sphere. During its Stream On event, apart from launching Spotify Hifi, the company also talked about the investments they plan to make in order to provide a better and more interactive audio experience. One of those investments has been announced today in the form of Spotify acquiring the creator of the platform Locker Room, Betty Labs.
“Creators and fans have been asking for live formats on Spotify, and we’re excited that soon, we’ll make them available to hundreds of millions of listeners and millions of creators on our platform,” said Gustav Söderström, Chief Research & Development Officer at Spotify. “The world already turns to us for music, podcasts, and other unique audio experiences, and this new live audio experience is a powerful complement that will enhance and extend the on-demand experience we provide today.”
Betty Labs released Locker Room – a platform for sports fans to react to and discuss about sports-related news, announcements and rumors in real-time – last year.
This can be a perfect addition to Spotify, which has been doubling down on different type of content, including podcasts, having acquired exclusive broadcasting rights for the biggest podcast on the planet- the Joe Rogan Experience.
Spotify has said that while Locker room will continue to be a standalone platform, Betty Labs and Spotify’s teams will work together to evolve it into something more. In the coming months, Locker Room users will have the option of recording their live talks and sharing them as a podcast to Spotify, Anchor or other audio sharing platforms.
Additionally, apart from Sports, the platform will now include other topics of discussions such as pop and culture. Creators will also have a more active role on Spotify now.
The firms are looking to add features that will enable them to host events such as live streaming parties and DJ’s being able to present their mixes to a broad audience in real-time. The Spotify Website also talks about other interesting features. “We’ll give professional athletes, writers, musicians, songwriters, podcasters, and other global voices opportunities to host real-time discussions, debates, ask me anything (AMA) sessions, and more.”
This acquisition could eventually lead to Creators being able to earn from their podcasts and playlists, but that is still in the future. Notably, this development, combined with Spotify’s earlier acquisition of podcast app- Anchor, has fast-tracked Spotify’s entry into the live audio sphere.
