Stereo has recruited an army of YouTubers to take on Clubhouse, but will audiences embrace the new platform?

You've definitely heard of Clubhouse - the invite-only live conversation platform taking the world by storm. Now rival-app Stereo is mounting a challenge, and it's relying on YouTube stars to win the fight.

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief when 2020 finally came to an end. And yet, it's fair to say that 2021 hasn't quite given us the fresh start we were all hoping for. What it has brought about, however, is scores of people finding new ways to express themselves online, namely in the form of live audio.

There's plenty of evidence that points to these new conversation platforms being the new big thing in the social media space, and you don't have to look far to find it.

• Clubhouse has proved its worth by surging in popularity in 2021, attracting the likes of Elon Musk, Oprah, Kanye West, and potentially even Vladamir Putin who has been invited to take part in a conversation on the app by the Tesla and SpaceX CEO.
• Companies like Battenhall, an award-winning PR & Social Media agency, are taking it so seriously that they're hiring a 'Senior Clubhouse Executive' to lead the charge as brands look to grapple with this new space.
• Facebook is, unsurprisingly, now developing its own Clubhouse clone to cash in on the rapid growth of this kind of content.
• Twitter is working extra hard to roll out its new 'Spaces' feature to more of its users as more and more people seek out access to Clubhouse.
• And now, Stereo has thrown its hat in the ring - posing as the latest challenger to the Clubhouse hegemony that has developed in recent months.

Their tactic? Throw cash at just about every single YouTube entertainer you can think of and pray that their audiences embrace the new platform.

But what is Stereo? Personally, I hadn't heard of the live audio-based app until I saw some of the UK's top influencers using it in sponsored videos.

The concept is simple and very similar to that of Clubhouse. It sells itself as a way to "join the conversation" by allowing users to listen-in to live chats from anywhere in the world and even queue up to take part. For entertainers and influencers, it gives them the opportunity to interact with their fans and followers on a more personal level.

Simplifying the podcasting process is also one of Stereo's major selling points as it allows users to easily record conversations and bring on guests remotely without the need for a studio or fancy equipment. In fact, Stereo even dubs itself as a 'full-cycle podcast creation platform' that includes 'integration with all popular podcast directories like iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and others.'

When you consider the manner in which the medium of podcasting has exploded in recent years, with podcast listenership rising to an estimated 15.6 million listeners in the UK alone last year, it's easy to see how an app like this could very easily take off. 

The man behind the app is none other than Andrey Andreev who, last year, pocketed over $1.5 million after selling his stake in Blackstone Inc. which is the company behind a number of the world's most popular dating apps, including Bumble. 

He's not holding back with his next venture either. The people behind Stereo are putting their money where their mouth is in a serious way. They've embarked on a *HUGE* influencer campaign, opting to use UK YouTube stars with millions of subscribers to promote their new social networking app. 

The figures outlined above are some of the most popular members of the campaign, but there are many more YouTube creators involved. One thing is certain, this many brand deals with creators of this magnitude do not come cheap which is something their YouTube audiences have picked up on. One user left a comment on a Stereo-sponsored video from Callum McGinley (Callux), a British creator with an audience of 3.76 million subscribers, saying "Stereo seriously has a huge advertisement budget, they've basically sponsored the whole of UK YouTube!"

On top of this, this new wave of branded content that has swept across YouTube in the past week has come with outrageously clickbait titles, written specifically with the purpose of driving views and, by extension, more eyes to the Stereo platform.

For example, Tobi Brown (TBJZL), a member of the Sidemen who is notoriously secretive about his private life, chose to title one of his Stereo brand deal videos 'opening up about my relationship' with a very serious expression masking his face in the thumbnail. It's fair to say it had the desired effect, generating 1.2 million views on the video making it his most popular upload in the past three months.

Nurturing a healthy entertainer-audience relationship is crucial to success on YouTube, and fan interaction is a big part of that. Many YouTube creators use Reddit as a place to build up a sense of community and engage with their subscribers. On Stereo, however, users get the chance to be a part of their favourite creators' live shows and ask them questions directly.

So this begs the question, why are we seeing an explosion in the popularity of live audio?

• It's less effort to hop on an audio call than it is a video one, making it more accessible and stress-free.
• You're granted an additional layer of privacy than you would be by appearing on a live video feed, it's possible to remain anonymous with Stereo's avatar feature.
• Lockdown loneliness is real, and people seem to find comfort in listening-in to these random, yet interesting conversations. Something to fill the silence, perhaps. Indeed, combatting loneliness is one of Stereo's key selling points.
• WFH is the new normal for many people around the world, which means people are freer to drop-in to a live conversation during the day than they would be if they were commuting to the office.
• With the growth in the popularity of podcasting, everybody now fancies themselves as a podcast host. Platforms like Stereo claim to streamline the podcasting process by removing the need for fancy equipment and a studio.
• It brings celebrity-audience engagement to a more intimate level.

In the case of Clubhouse, there's a major FOMO factor at play. These conversations are live, unscripted, and unrecorded. They're also inherently unpredictable. The fact that you never know who is going to join in, or which direction it might turn is enough to get people to tune in.

There's also the point of exclusivity that exists on Clubhouse with it being invite-only which has undoubtedly caused a buzz. You might not even want to download the app, but after finding out that without an invite you can't take part anyway, it must make you wonder what you're missing out on.

In recent years, social media has become a competition of who can shout the loudest, and this new wave of audio-based apps and features has given us the opportunity to take it that to a more literal level. We're also quickly approaching the one-year anniversary of the UK's first national lockdown, being housebound for the best part of a year has created the perfect conditions for live conversation apps to thrive.

But it is this very fact that poses questions over the long-term viability of Clubhouse's rapid growth. Boris Johnson, today, outlined a potential roadmap for the easing of lockdown restrictions in England and identified 21 June as a preliminary date for the removal of restrictions on social contact. Across Twitter people rejoiced at this idea, but some were also quick to point out the impact this might have on Clubhouse and its userbase.

Ultimately, there's a social media graveyard - a place where new and exciting apps go to die after failing to catch on. Many of these have also been promoted by influencers and entertainers alike, creating a short-lived buzz which dissipated as quickly as it was generated.

So the question is, does Stereo have what it takes to outshine its main rival? And more broadly, does live audio have enough of an appeal to still bring in users once the world opens up, or will it fade into irrelevance along with the threat of the pandemic?