Spotify Renames Social Audio Acquisition Locker Room to Spotify Greenroom
Spotify’s upcoming social audio platform will rename the recently acquired Locker Room to Spotify Greenroom. The revamped app’s name was unveiled during Spotify’s For the Record podcast by CEO Daniel Ek announced the rebranding during the latest episode of the company’s For the Record podcast.
Greenroom Door
Spotify bought Betty Labs, Locker Room’s developer, last March as part of a push into social audio and what Spotify calls the “live audio space.” Spotify had been edging toward social audio for some time before the acquisition, but the rebrand brings the previously vague explanations into sharper focus. Greenroom will host shows and programs, as well as more intimate chats with creators. It will be a virtual venue for all kinds of creators and leaders to directly speak to their audiences.
“Because the broader audio market is still in its infancy compared to music, the opportunities to innovate there are immense and evolving fast and furiously. We have long enjoyed a first-mover advantage and we will continue to prioritize introducing new capabilities across all facets of audio,” Ek said during a quarterly call with investors this week. “Our recent acquisition of the live audio room, Locker Room, is an example of this commitment to improving our experience. We want to be the absolute best partner to creators by giving them opportunities to create and grow and engage and monetize their art and fan base.”
Social Audio Success
Spotify plans are an important component of the exploding social audio market. In the wake of Clubhouse and its many millions of users, there seems to be a new or revived social audio experiment every other day. Startups like Quilt and Swell are competing with Twitter Spaces, Instagram Live Rooms, the new Telegram Voice Chats, though Greenroom’s most direct competition may be the Stage Channels that Discord is developing. Ek compares social audio to Stories, the short-term images and videos first associated with Snapchat but now a feature on every major platform from Instagram to LinkedIn. Ek sees the creators and their connection to fans as the key to Spotify standing out when social audio becomes ubiquitous.
“You should really view live as the opportunity for creating new and meaningful ways to connect creators and fans. That’s how we look at it,” Ek said during the call. “So I think it’s probably going to start out with spoken word content. But specifically as it relates to Spotify, I think that there will be a lot of musicians that want to engage in everything from speaking to their fans to having listening parties and all other things because it’s so clear to them that on the Spotify platform that engagement drives meaningful conversion to monetization just on the basis of our revenue number.”
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