Almost a year since Spotify launched its Clubhouse rival social-audio app Greenroom, the company has rebranded it.
Now known as Spotify Live, the platform will bring Spotify’s live capabilities directly on to the Spotify app.
Spotify says this change reflects its “belief in the future of live-audio creators and live experiences being provided to all 406 million Spotify listeners around the globe”.
Spotify Live can now be found both as a stand-alone app, and as a livestream function in the Spotify app alongside music and podcasts.
Listeners will be able to tune in to live programming on Spotify via the creator’s podcast or artist page, and can participate in chats using the Spotify Live app.
Live audio in the Spotify app is currently only available for original programming, while independent creators who wish to go live can still do so in the Spotify Live app, Spotify detailed in a blog post.
Spotify told TechCrunch that “live listening in the main Spotify app will not support the interactive features, like audience questions,” but it will instead allow “creators to interact with their audience in real time and serve as a creation mechanism for hosts”.
Greenroom shows now available on Spotify Live include Lorem Life with Dev Lemons and Max Motley, Deux Me After Dark with Deuxmoi and Internet People Live with Zack Fox.
Greenroom was previously known as Locker Room, which Spotify acquired in March last year after purchasing the media and tech company Betty Labs for a reported $62 million.
During the pandemic, Locker Room’s competitor Clubhouse proved to be a valuable tool for conversation, and reached a peak of almost 10 million monthly downloads in February 2021, says Forbes.
Companies like Spotify and Twitter, with its ‘Spaces’ feature, quickly launched rival apps, however, by April 2021, the Clubhouse app was downloaded around 922,000 times.
Twitter has continued to release new features for Spaces, such as the option to add co-hosts, since its full launch in 2021, and some chats have attracted more than 150,000 people for a single session.
The app formally known as Greenroom, however, managed just 275,000 global downloads post-acquisition on Apple’s App Store, says TechCrunch.
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