It’s been three years since Spotify acquired live audio startup Betty Labs, and yet the music streaming service isn’t using the technology to its full potential — at least in our opinion.
Betty Labs-owned Locker Room launched in 2020 as a sports-focused social audio app where sports fans could join live chats, create watch parties, and react to games in real time. When Spotify bought the app, they renamed it Greenroom, a Clubhouse clone that catered to all types of fans, whether they were interested in sports, fantasy football, music or other topics. Like other social audio apps, Greenroom users could create a virtual room and engage in live conversations with others who share the same interests.
Greenroom was then rebranded as Spotify Live in 2021, but was ultimately short-lived and officially closed last year. The failure to gain traction could be due to many factors, including the sad reality that social audio is struggling (just look at Clubhouse and the now-defunct Reddit Live Talk). Also, some users he complained that the standalone app was full of bugs and glitches, while others noted that the audio was of poor quality (which seems pretty bad for a music streaming giant). The room’s capacity of only 1,000 users was another disappointment.
Fortunately, Spotify hasn’t completely abandoned live audio. In December 2023, the company launched an experimental in-app feature called “Listening Party”, allowing superfans to participate in invite-only live listening parties where they can hear directly from the artist, ask questions in a live chat room and even ask the artist to participate as a speaker. (Listening Party was previously a Spotify Live feature that the company found to be the most promising feature, a representative told us at the time of the shutdown announcement.)
Spotify is testing the feature with a number of artists, including Zara Larsson, Bleachers, MGMT and Lizzy McAlpine, among others. Most recently, Billie Eilish held a Listening Party for her top fans (selected based on Spotify data) last Friday, May 17, to celebrate her latest album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” It was a decent turnout, with 2,500 users, including me. A representative told TechCrunch that a typical listening party has between 1,000 and 3,000 listeners.
The Listening Party experience was a mixed bag. On one hand, fans’ excitement was palpable as they flooded the live chat with comments. On the other hand, aside from opening remarks from Eilish and her brother Finneas O’Connell (songwriter and producer), there was little use of Spotify’s live audio capabilities. Instead, Eilish took to her keyboard, telling fans how excited she was to perform her new song ‘CHIHIRO’ live.
Instead of making the most of real-time audio technology, Eilish’s live session was mostly a 50-minute stream of her new album with zero interruption. It then ended abruptly without a goodbye from Eilish.
We weren’t the only ones who reacted to a Listening Party this way. MGMT fans voiced similar complaints during their session. “I thought they asked questions afterwards,” one fan wrote in a Reddit thread. “MGMT says nothing,” said another.
For whatever reason, Eilish’s event also missed a key feature that the Listening Party offers – “Onstage”, where fans can request to speak to the artist during the live chat. Fans only participated with written reactions, hoping Eilish would see it and respond. So instead of being a live conversation with users that the social audio feature is designed for, it was treated more like a group listening sesh, prompting a similar response when on a boring Zoom call – “That could have been an email.”
To be fair, Eilish’s Listening Party was better than nothing and offered an alternative experience to the two listening parties she hosted in New York (May 15) and Los Angeles (May 16). We also understand that it is not up to the artists to use certain features. However, we couldn’t help but be disappointed.
Another downside to the feature is that you have to be considered a “very attractive” listener to be invited to a Listening Party, which excludes hundreds of thousands of fans from connecting with their favorite artists. (But it should be noted that the maximum capacity is likely to prevent the server from crashing.)
Despite the setback caused by the end of Spotify Live, the introduction of Listening Party means Spotify is trying to make the most of its $62 million investment in Betty Labs. However, based on our assessment of the feature, Spotify still has significant ground to cover in order to establish itself as a leading player in the live audio space.
Listening Party is currently in the early stages of testing, so thankfully it still has room to grow. It is only available to users in the US and Indonesia.
