Spotify Officially Launches Social Audio App and Clubhouse Rival Greenroom

Spotify released the Greenroom social audio app on Wednesday after months of build-up. The iOS and Android mobile app is a renamed and rebuilt Locker Room, the social audio app created by Betty Labs that Spotify acquired in March. Greenroom looks a lot like Clubhouse and other recent social audio success stories but is focused more on fostering an audience for shows, concerts, and other programs hosted on Greenroom, like a kind of virtual venue.

Greenlit Greenroom

Only former Locker Room users may be able to see the bones of the previous app. Greenroom has been thoroughly rebranded in the colors and style of Spotify, with green and black around new logos and a different font for the text. Anyone can sign up through the app, and the Greenroom’s profiles can link directly to existing Spotify accounts. Once onboarded, any user and invite others to join as listeners, or invite them up to the stage where they can talk. That part is very much like Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. Each room also comes with a side chat area for text conversation, not to mention the option to find and post gifs.

The in-built audio recording is also a stand-out feature. Once the chat is over, the room’s creators can save the audio files and distribute them on a social platform. Spotify has explicitly said it hopes people will use the audio to craft podcasts to publish on its streaming platform, perhaps through the Spotify-owned Anchor platform. That would go well with the creator fund Spotify announced at the same time. Spotify is looking for social audio creators to support financially as a way of fostering a growing community on Greenroom. The exact mechanism of who gets chosen and how much they can earn is still unclear, as it is more performance-based, affected by how many people join the show’s room to listen.

“Since bringing the Locker Room app into the fold, we’ve been working to expand its capabilities, with the goal of creating a live audio experience that will delight creators and listeners everywhere,” Spotify explained in a blog post. “The Greenroom offering will continue to evolve as we learn more about what creators and listeners want from their live audio experience. We’ll also bring exciting new programming to the platform spanning music, culture, and entertainment topics in addition to the sports content Locker Room has been known for.”

Social Audio Success

Spotify is pushing into the social audio market as it continues to spark in the wake of Clubhouse’s success,. There’s s a new or upgraded social audio experience popping up almost every other day, whether from like Quilt and Swell or the ventures into Twitter Spaces, Instagram Live Rooms, the new Telegram Voice Chats, and the Facebook social audio platform that CEO Mark Zuckerberg used in a beta test just this week. Greenroom’s most direct competition may be the Stage Channels that Discord has launched, including rival interest-matching options for users.  Still, Spotify is being quite bold in its ambitions for social audio.

“We believe Spotify has an opportunity not only to enable live broadcasts, but to aid discovery, drive consumption, and accelerate growth of the live category overall,” the company stated. “Today’s app unveiling is our opportunity to begin laying the foundation for the exciting roster of content and capabilities Spotify has in store in our venture into live audio.”

Follow @voicebotaiFollow @erichschwartz

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Tests New Social Audio Platform to Talk Gaming

Discord Highlights Debut of Social Audio Event Guide Stage Discovery With Month of Celebrities

Spotify Renames Social Audio Acquisition Locker Room to Spotify Greenroom