What is Social Audio?

You click into a social audio room and hear voices discussing a topic of interest to you. You record yourself telling your child you love them and you message it to them. You listen to a speaker and ask them a question by virtually raising your hand and speaking into your phone. You choose an audio snippet for your latest TikTok video. These are a few ways social audio gives people the chance to connect with each other using sound.

More people than ever are turning to social audio to keep in touch with friends, stay informed, and, of course, to be entertained.

What Is Social Audio?

The phrases ‘voice-based social media’ and ‘social audio’ are talking about social media platforms that use audio as their primary means of communication. Social audio includes live conversation rooms, voice messaging, audio editing tools, podcasts, and more.

Industry guru Jeremiah Owyang says social audio is the ‘Goldilocks’ medium of the 2020s, because it “represents the opportunity for social connection and empathy without the downsides of video.” An easy user experience is one reason why many people already prefer to listen to podcasts, or use voice commands and smart speakers to complete different tasks (from asking how many teeth the average shark has, to making grocery lists). Social audio takes everything we like about audio and enables us to use it to do more than only listen. Through social audio, we can interact with other people.

Social audio is a pretty new subcategory of social media that is still in the refining process. There isn’t only one type of social audio platform. And the platforms that feature social audio are constantly evolving, figuring out what works for their users, and what their users want.

These four social media platforms are at the forefront of social audio, but they are all going about it a little differently. We can’t wait to see what they do next with social audio.

Spotify Greenroom

Spotify is already a leader in audio. It’s the default music service for most listeners, and it’s a leader in podcasting. With Spotify Greenroom, Spotify is taking their audio platform to a different level. Spotify Greenroom is a live audio-only app “that allows artists and other creators to connect with fans, followers, and friends in the moment.” Creators host discussions in ‘rooms’ and ‘spaces’. Through these ‘sessions’, artists and creators can talk about their new releases on Spotify, host a chat after a virtual event or show, or talk with other creators.

Clubhouse

Clubhouse is a social audio platform that hosts group conversations through voice chat rooms that users can drop into and listen in on. In Clubhouse, users can speak to one another in virtual rooms. The three types of rooms are ‘open rooms,’ ‘social rooms,’ and ‘closed rooms.’?

• Open rooms: anyone on Clubhouse can join
• Social rooms: users who follow a moderator are able to view and join that moderator’s room
• Closed rooms: the moderator invites users they would like to join in the chat

You can search for clubs by topic. For example, if you’re interested in real estate, then you can search for clubs about real estate, spanning everything from Real Estate Money (48.7k members at the time of writing) to Women in Real Estate (57.6k members).

Twitter Spaces

Anyone with a Twitter account and more than 600 followers can host a conversation on Twitter Spaces. If you follow the account that hosts a space, or you are sent the conversation link, you can join the conversation. Users can take part in the conversation and access their Twitter feed at the same time, so you don’t even have to stop scrolling your Twitter feed to participate.

Facebook Audio Tools

Facebook has launched in-app podcast listening and discovery tools, which lets users listen to podcasts in the Facebook app, even when the app is backgrounded. Facebook has also launched Live Audio Rooms. Groups on Facebook can? host live chat rooms where members of that group can take part in real-time voice discussions.

Wisdom

Wisdom is a new social audio ‘mentorship marketplace’ that’s like a mix between Clubhouse and MasterClass (which you’ve undoubtedly seen advertised on Facebook). Wisdom lets users log in to find conversations to join live. They also have the chance to ask questions or listen back on the conversation, which is saved to the profile of the host. The idea behind Wisdom is for chats to exclusively focus on advice. Advice, of course, can cover myriad topics - from fitness and parenting, to finance and mental health.

Anyone can sign up and start giving talks on Wisdom, but like most social media platforms, it has a verification system in place for “Top Mentors”. Wisdom is also incentivizing people to get involved by offering the chance to earn a “virtual currency” called Mentorcoin, based on listens and engagement with their talks. Currently, Mentorcoin can be exchanged for gift cards from stores like Amazon and Target, or donated to approved charities.

Fireside

Fireside, an app co-founded by entrepreneur Mark Cuban, launched just last month to help podcasters, musicians and other professional content producers create live shows with the ability to interact with the audience.

Content creators can start interactive shows from their phone using the Fireside app, which records and transcribes the show automatically. Fireside also lets users stream their show automatically to other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitch, which helps streamline content distribution for creators who want to post their content to multiple platforms.

Creators can also monetize their shows by selling virtual tickets or including ad breaks.

Using Social Audio as a Tool

Our voices are some of the best tools we have to relate to other people. With social audio, we can share our stories and our knowledge, and feel connected.

As social audio continues to grow, brands and creators will want to capitalize on this new medium. If you’re looking for a voice for your social audio content or an audio expert to elevate your social audio branding to the next level, then you’ve come to the right place. Contact our team here to schedule a free discovery call.