![\"Entertainment](\"https:\/\/www.digitalmusicnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Spotify-Main-3.jpg\" "\\"Entertainment\\"")
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Spotify\u2019s social-audio app is expected to shut down at the end of April. Photo Credit: Bastian Riccardi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Entertainment A little less than one year after rebranding<\/a> Greenroom as Spotify Live, the namesake streaming platform is officially shutting down the Clubhouse clone amid a broader effort to dial back its audio-entertainment overexpansion. <\/strong><\/h2>\nThe discontinuation of Spotify Live just recently came to light in a brief message posted on the app\u2019s homepage. Back in March of 2021, Spotify purchased<\/a> Locker Room, an audio-driven social platform and (at the time) leading competitor of the aforesaid Clubhouse.<\/p>\nLocker Room was then relaunched<\/a> as Greenroom (with several new features) that summer, and user-download stats revealed<\/a> shortly thereafter that the app was having difficulty catching on. Needless to say, the initially highlighted rebranding failed to turn things around for the live-audio offering, which in September of 2022 canceled<\/a> a Ghost event due to \u201ctechnical difficulties\u201d stemming from \u201coverwhelming\u201d fan demand.<\/p>\n(Clubhouse has reportedly<\/a> suffered a material usership decline since peaking in early 2021, and Meta\u2019s Facebook in June of 2022 went ahead and shuttered its podcast offering<\/a>, which had only debuted in 2021.)<\/p>\nMore recently, Spotify \u2013 which previously dropped billions<\/a> on podcasts, other spoken-word entertainment<\/a>, and related businesses \u2013 has set its sights on reining in spending. Even before kicking off 2023 by trimming six percent of its workforce<\/a>, the publicly traded business in 2022 closed<\/a> Studio 4, axed<\/a> a number of podcast series, and, during the year\u2019s final weeks, ended<\/a> several live-audio shows.<\/p>\nAnd with the non-music restructuring having showed few signs of slowing down<\/a> during 2023\u2019s first three months, Spotify Live is officially expected to cease operating on April 30th. <\/strong><\/h4>\n\u201cSpotify Live is going away,\u201d reads a message displayed on the service\u2019s homepage. \u201cThe Spotify Live app will shut down on April 30, 2023. You can still join any rooms or artist events until then. We\u2019re excited to bring more live events to Spotify in the future. Stay tuned!\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, a company spokesperson expanded upon the latter point, indicating that the platform will host other live happenings in the future \u2013 albeit without the Spotify Live app, of course.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a period of experimentation and learnings around how Spotify users interact with live audio, we\u2019ve made the decision to sunset our Spotify Live app,\u201d communicated the representative, whose employer hosted<\/a> a real-time DJ set from Swedish House Mafia last year.<\/p>\n\u201cWhile we believe that there is a future for live fan-creator interactions in the Spotify ecosystem, based on our learnings, it no longer makes sense as a separate, standalone app,\u201d the rep proceeded. \u201cWe\u2019ve also seen promising results in the artist-focused use case of listening parties, which we will continue to explore moving forward to facilitate live interactions between artists and fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding the above-noted podcasting cutbacks, Spotify is currently expanding video podcasts<\/a>. When the market closed today, the ValueAct Capital-backed<\/a>\u00a0company\u2019s shares (NYSE: SPOT<\/a>) were worth $136.44 apiece \u2013 a nearly 67 percent improvement since 2023\u2019s beginning.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n
Locker Room was then relaunched<\/a> as Greenroom (with several new features) that summer, and user-download stats revealed<\/a> shortly thereafter that the app was having difficulty catching on. Needless to say, the initially highlighted rebranding failed to turn things around for the live-audio offering, which in September of 2022 canceled<\/a> a Ghost event due to \u201ctechnical difficulties\u201d stemming from \u201coverwhelming\u201d fan demand.<\/p>\n (Clubhouse has reportedly<\/a> suffered a material usership decline since peaking in early 2021, and Meta\u2019s Facebook in June of 2022 went ahead and shuttered its podcast offering<\/a>, which had only debuted in 2021.)<\/p>\n More recently, Spotify \u2013 which previously dropped billions<\/a> on podcasts, other spoken-word entertainment<\/a>, and related businesses \u2013 has set its sights on reining in spending. Even before kicking off 2023 by trimming six percent of its workforce<\/a>, the publicly traded business in 2022 closed<\/a> Studio 4, axed<\/a> a number of podcast series, and, during the year\u2019s final weeks, ended<\/a> several live-audio shows.<\/p>\n \u201cSpotify Live is going away,\u201d reads a message displayed on the service\u2019s homepage. \u201cThe Spotify Live app will shut down on April 30, 2023. You can still join any rooms or artist events until then. We\u2019re excited to bring more live events to Spotify in the future. Stay tuned!\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, a company spokesperson expanded upon the latter point, indicating that the platform will host other live happenings in the future \u2013 albeit without the Spotify Live app, of course.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a period of experimentation and learnings around how Spotify users interact with live audio, we\u2019ve made the decision to sunset our Spotify Live app,\u201d communicated the representative, whose employer hosted<\/a> a real-time DJ set from Swedish House Mafia last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we believe that there is a future for live fan-creator interactions in the Spotify ecosystem, based on our learnings, it no longer makes sense as a separate, standalone app,\u201d the rep proceeded. \u201cWe\u2019ve also seen promising results in the artist-focused use case of listening parties, which we will continue to explore moving forward to facilitate live interactions between artists and fans.\u201d<\/p>\n Notwithstanding the above-noted podcasting cutbacks, Spotify is currently expanding video podcasts<\/a>. When the market closed today, the ValueAct Capital-backed<\/a>\u00a0company\u2019s shares (NYSE: SPOT<\/a>) were worth $136.44 apiece \u2013 a nearly 67 percent improvement since 2023\u2019s beginning.<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\nAnd with the non-music restructuring having showed few signs of slowing down<\/a> during 2023\u2019s first three months, Spotify Live is officially expected to cease operating on April 30th. <\/strong><\/h4>\n