Spotify is shutting down its Clubhouse wannabe Spotify Live

Music streamer Spotify’s move to shut down live audio app Spotify Live should come as no surprise to most. The move comes two years after the company purchased the app in its original form called Locker Room.

Spotify confirmed in an email to users first reported by Music Ally that it was shutting down the app.

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Spotify Live logo – image source: spotify.com

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Spotify Live was part of an industry-wide commitment to live audio that was intensified by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, Clubhouse came to prominence as a way for people to interact without having to interact in a voice-based room. It cannot be done directly. With his COVID-19 lockdowns ongoing around the world, people were looking for ways to connect. Clubhouse provided it.

But of course, it always ended up in the spotlight of big internet companies, with both Facebook and Twitter attempting to replicate Clubhouse, but they weren’t the only ones. Spotify has put him in $57 million for Locker Room, an app from startup Betty Labs focused on sports-oriented live audio. Locker Room was later relaunched as Spotify Greenroom, rebranded, and then started over, becoming Spotify Live in the process.

Fast forward to April 2023 and Spotify Live is on the dodo’s road.

In an email to users, Spotify said it still doesn’t believe live audio has a future, but that it doesn’t require a specific dedicated app. It seems that you are considering how to do it. To that end, Spotify says it is looking at new ways to offer live interaction between artists and their fans.

Critics will say that this is an example of Spotify ripping it off too hard to chew because it seems like it can do anything but stream music. The podcast has been bolted on ever since. Now, we can expect some aspects of Spotify Live to follow suit at some point in the future.

As for the live content Spotify has launched on Spotify Live, Music Ally reports that some shows will simply become podcasts, removing the live element entirely. However, no word yet on when that will happen or which live shows will be transitioned.