Why Spotify Live Is Now Officially Dead
Spotify took a trip into the live audio market with Spotify Live, a Clubhouse competitor. The company’s acquisition of Bell Labs in March 2021 made the music streaming giant the new owner of the live audio app Locker Room. Locker Room was later renamed to Spotify Greenroom in June 2021 before the final rebrand in April 2022 to Spotify Live.
Unfortunately for people who loved the platform, just a few years after its launch, Spotify is shutting down Spotify Live for good in 2023. Here’s why.
Spotify Is Officially Shutting Down Spotify Live
Spotify is officially shutting downSpotify Live, according to a statement shared withMusic Allyvia email. According to the publisher, a Spotify spokesperson said that “after a period of experimentation and learnings around how Spotify users interact with live audio, we’ve made the decision to sunset the Spotify Live app.”
As a result of the news, Spotify is notifying all of Spotify Live’s users of its future via an in-app notification. Upon opening the app, users are greeted with a notification that the app is shutting down on April 30, 2023. However, it adds that users can still create and join rooms before the wind-down date.
Why Spotify Is Shutting Down Spotify Live
The drastic decision to shut down Spotify Live after the official rebranding in April 2022 seems drastic, but the music streaming giant has its reason.
In the same email, Spotify’s spokesperson said, “We believe there is a future for live fan-creator interactions in the Spotify ecosystem; however, based on our learnings, it no longer makes sense as a standalone app.”
It is to be remembered that Spotify integrated Spotify Live’s features into the main app back in April 2022.
Another possible reason for the shutdown that the company won’t mention is that the craze around live audio (a trend that emerged with Clubhouse in March 2020) has been dying. Ever since it launched in 2020,Clubhouse became so popularthat it made many tech companies rush to launch live-audio features on their platforms, including Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit.
But after user adoption of live audio started to dwindle in 2022, marked by the rapid decline of Clubhouse, companies have either scaled back or abandoned such live features.
For instance, Twitter discontinued Twitter Spaces, Facebook scaled down its investment in live audio features, and Reddit shut down Reddit Talks. Due to the same reason, Spotify also ended the production of some of its original live audio shows in 2022. Because of the new reality, it only makes sense for Spotify to shut down its standalone app due to the shrinking market for live audio.
Spotify Is Still Not Giving Up on Live Audio
Even with Spotify Live’s shutdown, Spotify is not entirely giving up on live audio. Spotify still believes there’s a future for artist-focused listening parties, and the company promises to continue exploring the idea as a way to bring artists and their fans closer through live interactions.
Spotify’s spokesperson told Music Ally, “We have 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.”
If you may’t wait for Spotify, there are plenty ofsocial audio appsyou can try.
Catch Your Favorite Spotify Live Shows as Podcasts on Spotify
Spotify Live is going away, but you can continue to listen to some of the original shows as podcasts on Spotify’s main app. Search forLive on Spotifyand selectLive on Spotifyfrom the search results. On the next page, Spotify will display the different shows available as podcasts that you can listen to at your convenience.
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