An audio start-up without revenue gets valued at $4bn (\u00a32.8bn), Facebook is launching what it calls social audio experiences, while Twitter has a new feature called Spaces allowing users to start an instant chat room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What’s going on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week’s Tech Tent explores whether good old-fashioned audio is the hot new thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The arrival of Clubhouse has suddenly made social media giants suffer a severe bout of Fomo – fear of missing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They watched the app, which allows users to start audio chatrooms on any subject they fancy, acquire lots of enthusiastic users and an enormous amount of Silicon Valley buzz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then came the validation any hot start-up requires – a funding round, this week led by the ritzy venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which is reported to have valued Clubhouse at $4bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the app is still only available to invited iPhone users, so what makes it so attractive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One early adopter, Rachel Lankester, explained why she had become addicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I’ve enjoyed the inclusivity of it and how it provides access to people that I usually just simply wouldn’t have,” she said. “I’ve connected with women from all over the world on there.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whereas video streaming apps demand a focus on your appearance, Rachel says she enjoys “the intimacy of audio”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She describes how it has provided her, an amateur broadcaster, with a simple way of running a radio chat show with guests and audience participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I had one woman who got up at 04:00 in the morning in Australia, just so she could speak directly to my guests. I think that’s pretty cool!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social media consultant Matt Navarra has a theory that the pandemic, which has seen millions locked down at home searching for entertainment, has provided an opportunity for services like Clubhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We wanted something new and interesting. And so audio provides that, a new medium for people to experience content with,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On repeat?
But even though the likes of Facebook and Twitter seem to be convinced that audio is going to be important to their audiences, Matt is cautious about its mass appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He points to the story of Meerkat, a video streaming app that in 2015 was “poised to take the tech world by storm”, according to one blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We all thought it was going to be amazing. And then quite quickly, we all realised that most people don’t produce that much exciting live content,” Mr Navarra said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that’s the problem which Clubhouse and its rivals will have to confront – while they will attract small communities passionately interested in talking about their specialist subjects, many people may tune in a couple of times, get bored by what they hear, and never return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While live audio discussion may have limited appeal, recorded audio content may be more attractive – as the popularity of podcasts has shown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And strangely, it has always been much easier to share a video on social media than to post an audio clip, so there is a big gap waiting to be filled. Or is there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In researching this episode of Tech Tent I came across an article of mine from 2009 with the title “Time for an Audio Revolution”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was written by me and describes a range of audio apps, including one called Audioboo, which allowed users to post clips – or “boos” – on social media. I went on to be an enthusiastic user, with my boos including a message from Stephen Fry about his admiration for Steve Jobs just before the Apple founder’s death – and an account of spotting a bear on the path ahead during a family holiday in Yosemite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Audioboo never became the YouTube of audio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It shed its founder, changed its name to Audioboom, and became a podcast platform which just this month announced its first-ever quarterly profit, benefitting from the boom in listeners over the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The audio revolution, which failed to arrive a decade ago, may be staging a comeback. But don’t be surprised if it turns out to be quite a muted affair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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