In the three years since Spotify acquired the live audio startup Betty Labs, the music streaming giant has seemingly not utilized the technology to its full potential—at least from our perspective.
Originally launched by Betty Labs in 2020, Locker Room was a sports-centric social audio app designed for sports enthusiasts to engage in live conversations, host watch parties, and react to games in real-time. Spotify’s acquisition led to a rebranding effort, transforming Locker Room into Greenroom, which aimed to appeal to a broader audience, including fans of sports, fantasy football, music, and various other topics. Greenroom allowed users to create virtual rooms and participate in live discussions on shared interests, much like other social audio platforms.
Renamed Spotify Live in 2021, the app struggled to gain traction and was officially shut down last year. Several factors contributed to its downfall, including the broader challenges faced by social audio platforms (evidenced by the struggles of Clubhouse and the discontinued Reddit Live Talk). Users reported numerous issues, such as bugs, glitches, and poor audio quality—a significant shortcoming for a music streaming service. Additionally, the room capacity was limited to 1,000 users, which was a notable drawback.
Despite this setback, Spotify did not entirely abandon live audio. In December 2023, the company introduced an experimental in-app feature called “Listening Party.” This feature allows superfans to join exclusive, invite-only live listening sessions where they can hear directly from the artist, engage in live chat, and even request to join the artist as a speaker. A Spotify spokesperson mentioned that Listening Party was initially a feature of Spotify Live and was deemed the most promising when Spotify Live was shut down.
Spotify has been piloting this feature with various artists, including Zara Larsson, Bleachers, MGMT, and Lizzy McAlpine. Recently, Billie Eilish hosted a Listening Party on May 17 to celebrate her latest album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” with 2,500 attendees, including myself. A Spotify spokesperson disclosed that typical Listening Parties attract between 1,000 and 3,000 listeners.
The Listening Party experience was inconsistent. While fans exhibited palpable excitement in the live chat, the session made minimal use of Spotify’s live audio features. Aside from brief introductory comments from Eilish and her brother Finneas, the live session was primarily a 50-minute uninterrupted stream of the new album and concluded abruptly without a closing remark from Eilish.
This sentiment was also echoed by MGMT fans, who expressed similar frustrations during their session. Some fans took to Reddit to voice their disappointment, with one remarking, “I thought they were taking questions afterward,” and another noting, “MGMT isn’t saying anything.”
In summary, while Spotify has made efforts to integrate live audio, the execution has yet to fully capitalize on the technology’s potential, leaving room for improvement in future iterations.
For reasons unclarified, Eilish’s event lacked a key feature that Listening Party usually provides— “Onstage,” which allows fans to engage directly with the artist during live discussions. Instead, fans could only share written reactions, hoping Eilish would notice and respond. Consequently, the event resembled a group listening session rather than a live, interactive discussion, drawing parallels to a dull Zoom call that leaves one thinking, “This could have been an email.”
Nevertheless, Eilish’s Listening Party was a worthwhile endeavor, offering an alternative experience to her two in-person listening events in New York City (May 15) and Los Angeles (May 16). We acknowledge that the choice of features is not solely up to the artists. Even so, there was a degree of disappointment regarding the missed opportunity.
Another limitation of the feature is its exclusivity; only “highly engaging” listeners are invited to a Listening Party. This exclusivity excludes hundreds of thousands of fans from the opportunity to connect with their favorite artists. However, this likely serves to prevent server overload.
The discontinuation of Spotify Live has been a setback, but the introduction of Listening Party indicates that Spotify is making efforts to maximize its $62 million investment in Betty Labs. Our assessment reveals that Spotify still has considerable progress to make if it aims to become a frontrunner in the live audio space.
Currently, Listening Party remains in its early testing phases, leaving ample room for growth. At this stage, it is available only to users in the U.S. and Indonesia.
