New voice-based platforms, including invite-only social app
Clubhouse, have seen rapid growth in recent months during the COVID-19
pandemic. Locker Room, launched in October 2020, became a popular spot for
sports fans to chat and hold watch parties.
The music-streaming service said in the coming months it
would "evolve and expand" Locker Room to offer sports, music, and
cultural programming as well as live discussions with professional athletes,
musicians and other personalities.
"Creators and fans have been asking for live formats on
Spotify, and we're excited that soon, we'll make them available to hundreds of
millions of listeners and millions of creators on our platform," said
Gustav Söderström, Chief Research & Development Officer at Spotify.
Spotify did not disclose the cost of the acquisition. Betty
Labs was initially backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and later by GV,
Alphabet Inc's venture capital arm, and Precursor Ventures. Last October, Betty
Labs raised $9.3 million in seed funding led by GV.
"We are excited to join forces with Spotify and
continue building the future of audio - we'll invest more in our product, open
the experience to Spotify's audience, diversify our content offerings, and
continue expanding the community we've built," said Betty Labs founder and
CEO Howard Akumiah.
Spotify has also been making a push into podcasting, and has
spent hundreds of millions of dollars to boost its podcast range and debuted a
podcast advertising marketplace.
Screenshots shared by a Twitter user last week showed
Spotify was surveying some users about how often they used Clubhouse. Twitter
Inc is also testing a live audio app Spaces, which it plans to publicly launch
by April, and Facebook Inc is reportedly dabbling with its own live audio
offering.
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