Spotify gets the Locker Room sports talk show

Spotify Technology SA makes a living by acquiring a talk show Locker Room with its developer Betty Labs.

The agreement values ”‹”‹the company, originally sponsored by Lightspeed Venture Partners, and most recently by Google Ventures and Precursor Ventures, about $ 50 million, according to a business partner. If the goals are met, the price could rise to as much as $ 80 million, the man said.

The Lock Room has become a chat room for sports and sports news fans, with the likes of Miami Heat forward Andre Iguodala and Filadelphia 76ers watching Seth Curry on podcaster Ant Wright and ESPN’s Jeff Darlington cast their chats again. It has filled a real, multi-faceted space for sports fans who were left unattended in stadiums, stadiums and services during the closing of Covid-19.

The purchase follows an explosion of demand for live audio applications during the epidemic. Voice-based social networks, such as Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Cool Water and Lock Room, allow users to chat automatically. They are an alternative to podcasts, but also a preferred combination of podcasts, live streams, conferences and radio. Comedians, artists and business leaders flock to the visual rooms of these apps to create, discuss, debate and connect topics and industries.

For Spotify, which has grown into podcasting to position itself as the world’s largest audio company – not just a music broadcaster – a betting agreement that live audio will be better than the plague.

“Our creators have been asking for a long time to be able to work more closely with the fans,” said Gustav Söderström, head of research and development at Spotify in an interview. “The most effective way is to talk to them live.”

The Locker Room app is less than a year old. It was launched in October last year and has seen nearly 19,000 installations since then, according to research company Sensor Tower Inc. So far in March, it has seen an estimated 8,000 installments, which already represent 60% growth per month since February as a whole.

Spotify plans to rename and re-launch the app with a strong focus on all games, culture and pop music. The company plans to keep it a stand-alone product, but users will be able to record live episodes and upload them to Spotify or podcasting platform Anchor and distribute them widely. The superpower plans to touch the stars with its podcasting music and users to simplify programs with host artists listening to albums or DJs exploring live sets before adding them to a playlist. Sports broadcasters and fans can rate games around, and podcasters can host live “ask me anything” sessions, or AMAs.

“How you talk to a lot of people at the same time has been a challenge, and this approach is available,” he said. Söderström. “You can have a few people on stage, you can raise your hand to the audience and not keep quiet and ask a question, it’s not like on Twitter where everyone is crying at the same time.”

In the meantime, the app and its content will remain free to be accessible to all, even if Spotify has been working on creators’ ways to monetize their content, such as la carte payments for podcasts.

“Maybe life is a way to make money, maybe not,” he said. Söderström, added that while China has shown a willingness to pay for this type of work, Western markets have never. “It’s powerful, and it’s our job to test it.”

This text is published from a wire agency feed without text editing.