Spotify acquires talk app Locker Room, competes with ClubHouse

On March 30th, Spotify announced that they would be entering the social audio business by acquiring Betty Labs, the creators of Locker Room. Locker Room is a live talk app based around sports discussions. 

Spotify claims that this purchase “builds on its work to create the ‘future formats of audio’ and will accelerate Spotify’s entry into the live audio space”. 

During the Q4 investment call last month, Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek, stated that the company is very interested in the idea of adding various social media features to the platform. The integration of an audio-focused discussion tool into Spotify could help the company on their mission to become the number one DSP in the world. 

Spotify claims that following their acquisition, the app will be expanded into an enhanced live audio experience for a greater scope of creators and fans.

“We’ll give professional athletes, writers, musicians, songwriters, podcasters, and other global voices opportunities to host real-time discussions, debates, ask me anything (AMA) sessions, and more,” stated Spotify.

Gustav Söderström, Chief Research & Development Officer at Spotify, stated: “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.”