Spotify launched their Greenroom in response to the astronomical rise in the audio-only social media app that is Clubhouse. Greenroom works exactly like the Clubhouse app, except that it is a smear of green and black on your display compared to the grey, yellow, and white interface of the Clubhouse app. It was not an in-house development from Spotify as many though it was. It was birthed from Spotify’s acquisition of Betty Labs and its app, Locker Room. Later on in its life, it is named Spotify Live.
The hype for Clubhouse was a real one. It was a huge thing during the pandemic and everyone wanted to be on the platform or get involved in one way or another. At some point Facebook and Twitter were teasing their own audio-only social media platform. As the world would come to realise, the Clubhouse hype was short-lived.
No matter, Spotify still sees value in the concept. You can hardly blame Spotify though, they hold the largest podcast library in the world currently, even ahead of Apple and Google Podcast. They see value in ‘live’ radio like shows for their platform. At some point they even wanted to integrate the platform into the main Spotify app just to give users a more direct and centralised access to “live podcast shows”. They even introduced some Spotify Live exclusive shows.
It seems like that will also not be happening as reported by Music Ally. The signs were all painted on the walls though. By the end of 2022, Facebook had pulled its own version of live audio off the plug. Even Spotify Live was struggling to keep interests on their platform and had to cancel a few of their own exclusive shows. The next step, obviously, was to close off the app and probably integrate the platform into the main Spotify app. As it turns out, that might not happen too.
The Verge has reached out to Spotify on integrating the app into the main Spotify app and mentioned that the spokesperson was a little coy about it. They mentioned that “Spotify Live is shitting down completely”. There was also mentions of more investments and further innovations, but that was not necessarily specific to Spotify Live and live audio platforms.
Spotify’s spokesperson also mentions that they still see value in original fan created contents. They also see value in “listening parties”. In that case, it seems like Spotify might explore more of that in the future. You might be able to expect “live concerts” or “live sessions” on Spotify in the future. They have technically done that before when they relaunched the Spotify Live app in 2022 with a Swedish House Mafia listening party.
Thing is, as revealed by Music Ally, live streaming and broadcasting is not exactly a terrible business to be in. As YouTube and Twitch have proven that live videos works and is in a good place. Amazon Music has invested in live video shows that focuses on music alongside Twitch. Apple Music also offers access to select live radio stations. Stationhead, a startup, managed to grow in the space and now they are hosting live release parties on their own.
We are still expecting Spotify to add the Spotify Live feature on their main app. It will not look like the Spotify Live app we know today. We will not see random chat rooms or ‘Live Rooms’ where you can participate in the chat or discussion topic of the day. You will definitely see more ‘listening parties’ within the app though, or even something that resembles a live radio show with music like Stationhead’s initiative. For now, long live Spotify Live, we cannot say that we will miss you because we have not exactly been active on the app anyway.