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<\/p>\nImage Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n The Live Audio Rooms will be available across both Facebook and Messenger, Facebook says in an official blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n The company will first test Live Audio Rooms in Groups, reaching Groups\u2019 1.8 billion monthly users. They\u2019ll also be made available to public figures and experts. Early adopters of the feature will include American football quarterback Russell Wilson<\/a>, Grammy-nominated electronic music artist\u00a0TOKiMONSTA<\/a>, artist and director\u00a0Elle Moxley<\/a> and five-time Olympic medalist and entrepreneur Nastia Liukin<\/a>, Facebook says.<\/p>\n Twitter\u2019s \u2018Super Follow\u2019 creator subscription takes shots at Substack and Patreon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Live Audio Rooms will be available to everyone on Facebook this summer. Also this summer, Live Audio Rooms will be made available on Messenger, for an experience that allows friends to hang out, too.<\/p>\n In addition to products that rehash audio functionality available in tech products from other companies, Zuckerberg also revealed that the company was working on an audio-only version of its TikTok competitor Instagram Reels that allows users to quickly move through algorithmically sorted short audio clips, a project being called Soundbites. In its blog post, Facebook detailed that they will be testing Soundbites over the next few months with a small group of creators before making it widely available.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea here is it\u2019s short-form audio clips, whether it\u2019s people sharing things that they find funny\u2026 or kind of pithy things that people want to share that cover a bunch of different genres and topics,\u201d Zuckerberg said.<\/p>\n For podcast creators, Zuckerberg said the company will build out tools for those who follow podcasts and creators through Facebook Pages, but don\u2019t currently have a way to access podcast content via the social network. He noted that there are now 170 million Facebook users who are connected to a Page for a podcast, which is why it wants to ensure they have a way to access this audio content more easily.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n For these users, they\u2019ll be able to discover the audio and start playing it, even in the background. Or they could choose to launch a second app to continue to play it, Zuckerberg said. We understand that the experience will actually allow users to directly open Spotify, if they would prefer to listen to the music or audio there, instead.<\/p>\n The feature will also help users with new podcast discovery based on your interests, and users will be able to comment on podcasts and recommend them to friends.<\/p>\n Related to these audio efforts, Zuckerberg referenced Facebook\u2019s partnership with Spotify, which is now being expanded with something it has internally referred to as \u201cProject Boombox\u201d<\/a> \u2014 an integration that would allow people to share content from their favorite artists, playlists and other types of audio in their feed. That content would then appear in a little, in-line player for others to click and play.<\/p>\n We understand from sources familiar with the Spotify integration that this player will support both music and podcasts. It has already been tested in non-U.S. markets, including Mexico and Thailand. It\u2019s expected to arrive in about a week.<\/p>\n \u201cFacebook\u2019s interest in audio is further validation of the category and reinforces what we\u2019ve known all along \u2014 the power and potential for audio is limitless,\u201d a spokesperson for Spotify told TechCrunch. \u201cOur ambition has always been to make Spotify ubiquitous across platforms and devices \u2014 bringing music and podcasts to more people \u2014 and our new integration with Facebook is another step in these efforts. We look forward to a continued partnership with Facebook, fueling audio discovery around the world,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n Zuckerberg also referenced the need to serve the growing creator economy with its new products.<\/p>\n With Live Audio Rooms, fans will be able to support creators through Stars, Facebook\u2019s existing in-app tipping feature, or donate to causes. Facebook says it will later offer other monetization tools like access to Live Audio Rooms on subscriptions. There\u2019s also an Audio Creator Fund being made available to kick off the launch of Soundbites.<\/p>\n Clubhouse UX teardown: A closer look at homepage curation, follow hooks and other features<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The exec also spoke about Facebook\u2019s plans for a newsletter product, all under the umbrella of serving the creator community with a suite of tools \u2014 something Twitter is now doing, too, with its plans for Super Follow.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think a product where a journalist or a creator can basically create a subscription for people who want to follow them, that spans both a newsletter and a podcast, is going to be a really powerful thing,\u201d said Zuckerberg. \u201cSo that\u2019s a big part of what we\u2019re going to enable with some of the monetization tools around podcasts. That dovetails with the work that we\u2019re planning to do\u2026our work on our newsletters and giving tools for for independent journalists. I think enabling both of those things to come together on extremely favorable terms to journalists and creators, will be a pretty powerful thing,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n\n
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