{"id":25063,"date":"2021-06-30T06:30:39","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T06:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/facebook-officially-launches-live-audio-rooms-and-podcasts-in-the-us.html"},"modified":"2021-06-30T06:30:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T06:30:39","slug":"facebook-officially-launches-live-audio-rooms-and-podcasts-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/facebook-officially-launches-live-audio-rooms-and-podcasts-in-the-us.html","title":{"rendered":"Facebook officially launches Live Audio Rooms and podcasts in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April, Facebook announced a series of planned investments in new audio products<\/a>, including a Clubhouse live audio competitor as well as new support for podcasts. Today, Facebook is officially rolling out these products with the launch of Live Audio Rooms in the U.S. on iOS, starting with public figures and select Facebook Groups, and the debut of an initial set of U.S. podcast partners.<\/p>\n

The company tells us Live Audio Rooms will become available to any verified public figure or creator in the U.S. who\u2019s in good standing with Facebook and is using either a profile or the new Facebook Pages experience<\/a> on iOS. For Facebook Groups, the feature is launching with \u201cdozens of groups,\u201d we\u2019re told.<\/p>\n

Both products will become more broadly available in the weeks and months ahead, as more people, podcasts and Groups are brought on board. Meanwhile, 100% of Facebook users in the U.S. will be able to listen to Live Audio Rooms and podcasts as of this week.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Much like Clubhouse or similar audio apps, Facebook\u2019s Live Audio Rooms offer a standard set of features.<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s hosts appear in rounded profile icons at the top of the screen, while the listeners appear in the bottom half of the screen, as smaller icons. The active speaker is indicated with a glowing ring. If verified, a check appears next to their name, as well.<\/p>\n

There are also options for enabling live captions, a \u201craise hand\u201d tool to request to speak and tools to share the room with others on Facebook through things like News Feed or Group posts.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Facebook does things a little differently than others in some places. For instance, hosts are able to invite people to join them as a speaker in advance of the session, or they can choose listeners during the stream to join them. In each session, there can be up to 50 speakers and there\u2019s no limit on the number of listeners, Facebook says.<\/p>\n

During the session, users will be notified when friends or followers join the chat, too.<\/p>\n

While listening, users can \u201cLike\u201d or react to the content as it streams using the \u201cThumbs Up\u201d button at the bottom of the screen, which connects you to Facebook\u2019s set of emoji reactions. And with today\u2019s official launch, listeners can also now show support to the public figure of the Live Audio Room by sending \u201cStars<\/a>.\u201d These Stars can be purchased during the conversation and used at any time, similar to how they work with other Facebook Live content.<\/p>\n

By sending Stars, the listener is bumped up to the \u201cFront Row,\u201d a special section that highlights the people who sent the Stars. This allows the event\u2019s hosts to easily recognize their supporters and even give them a shout out during the event, if they choose.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Another new feature allows hosts to select a nonprofit or fundraiser to support during their conversation, and listeners and speakers can directly donate. A progress bar will show how much has been raised during the show.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for Facebook Groups, admins can control whether moderators, group members or other admins can create a Live Audio Room. Both members and visitors can listen to the rooms in public groups, but in private groups, the rooms are limited to Group members.<\/p>\n

Facebook users are alerted to all the new Live Audio Rooms via the News Feed and Notifications, and can sign up to be reminded when a room they\u2019re interested in goes Live. Live Audio Rooms will also be discoverable within Facebook Groups, where available.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Among the initial set of early adopters for Facebook Live Audio Rooms are Grammy-nominated electronic music artist TOKiMONSTA<\/a>; American football quarterback Russell Wilson<\/a>; organizer, producer and independent journalist Rosa Clemente<\/a>; streamer and digital entertainer Omareloff; and social entrepreneur Amanda Nguyen. Others planned for the near future include\u00a0<\/i>D Smoke<\/a>,\u00a0Kehlani<\/a>,\u00a0Reggie Watts<\/a> and Lisa Morales Duke<\/a>, as well as Dr. Jess<\/a>,\u00a0Bobby Berk<\/a>,\u00a0Tina Knowles-Lawson<\/a>,\u00a0Joe Budden<\/a> (notably Spotify\u2019s first big podcast star who it lost last year<\/a>) and DeRay Mckesson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Facebook Groups trying the new format include Dance Accepts Everyone, Vegan Soul Food, Meditation Matters, Pow Wow Nation, OctoNation \u2013 The Largest Octopus Fan Club! and Space Hipsters.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Alongside the launch of Live Audio Rooms, Facebook is also beginning to roll out its planned podcast support with a few select creators. These include Joe Budden<\/a> of The Joe Budden Podcast; \u201cJess Hilarious<\/a>\u201d of Carefully Reckless from The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio; Keltie Knight, Becca Tobin and Jac Vanek of The LadyGang<\/a>; and Nicaila Matthews Okome of Side Hustle Pro<\/a>. Facebook will open up to other podcasters this summer.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

To be clear, this new podcasts service is different from the recently launched music and podcasts player in partnership with Spotify<\/a>, which lets users share content from Spotify to the social network. The new feature instead involves podcasts that are streamed via public RSS feeds directly on Facebook, not delivered by Spotify. However, the miniplayer for podcasts on Facebook will look like the miniplayer for the Spotify listening integration (also known as Project Boombox), and they will behave similarly. But they are not the same.<\/p>\n

\n

Facebook invests in audio with short-form Soundbites feature, podcast support and a Clubhouse clone<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The new podcast listening experience lets users listen to podcasts as they browse Facebook, either in a miniplayer or full-screen player with playback options, and even if the phone\u2019s display is turned off. This makes Facebook, in a way, a native podcast streaming app because it allows people to listen to audio without needing another service \u2014 like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, for example.<\/p>\n

Facebook had earlier said<\/a> there are more than 170 Facebook users who are connected to a Page for a podcast, demonstrating user interest in podcasts on its social network.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

With the launch of the Facebook Podcast service, the company is asking podcast creators to give it permission<\/a> to cache their content on Facebook\u2019s servers, which we\u2019re told is being done to ensure the content doesn\u2019t violate Facebook\u2019s Community Standards. However, because the podcasts are still being streamed via RSS feeds, they will be represented in the metrics provided by a podcaster\u2019s hosting provider.<\/p>\n

Last week, Facebook emailed<\/a> podcast page owners details on how to set up their show on Facebook, noting they can link their podcast\u2019s RSS feed to automatically generate News Feed posts for their episodes. These are also featured on a \u201cpodcasts\u201d tab on their Page. According to Facebook\u2019s Podcast Terms of Service<\/a>, creators are granting Facebook the right to create \u201cderivative works,\u201d which likely refers to an upcoming clips feature.<\/p>\n

Facebook says later this summer it will add the ability to create and share short clips from a podcast, along with other features, like captions. Longer-term, it will create social experiences around podcasts, as well. It\u2019s also working with creators to develop and launch its new product, Soundbites, which are short-form, creative audio clips. This will launch later in 2021.<\/p>\n

\n

Image Credits:<\/strong> Facebook<\/p>\n

Other audio products in the works include a central listening destination and background audio listening for videos.<\/p>\n

Facebook says this new destination will be a place where all the different audio formats across Facebook are available, not just podcasts, and will help users find new things and people to listen to. More details on this project will become available later this summer.<\/p>\n

Prior to today, Facebook quietly tested<\/a> Live Audio Rooms in Taiwan and internally with Facebook employees Those tests will continue. Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted the first trial<\/a> of the new service in the U.S., where he was joined by other Facebook execs and a few Facebook Gaming creators.<\/p>\n

\n

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosts first test of Live Audio Rooms in US<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Zuckerberg has been bullish on the potential for audio across the social networking platform. He even appeared on Clubhouse a couple of times to discuss the topic ahead of announcing what is, essentially, Facebook\u2019s own Clubhouse competitor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the areas where I\u2019m most excited about it on Facebook are basically in the large number of communities and groups that exist,\u201d Zuckerberg had told Platformer<\/a>, at the time of the original announcement. \u201cI think that you already have these communities that are organized around interests, and allowing people to come together and have rooms where they can talk is \u2014 I think it\u2019d be a very useful thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Facebook expects to expand its audio products globally in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

\n

More thoughts on growing\u00a0podcasts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/ga4IICm7f4I\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April, Facebook announced a series of planned investments in new audio products, including a Clubhouse live audio competitor as well as new support for podcasts. Today, Facebook is officially <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-25063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t