In April 2021, Facebook signified its intentions to do more with audio. That included adding a feature for people to listen to podcasts within its service, and an expanded partnership with Spotify to enable its music and podcasts to be played in full within Facebook. Just over a year later, how’s that going?
Not so well. In fact, Facebook is pulling out of both these features. Bloomberg reported on the company ‘pulling the plug’ on podcasts, while moving its Clubhouse-like ‘Live Audio Rooms’ feature into its Facebook Live family. The social network said it was a move to “simplify our suite of audio tools”.
As for the Spotify integration, Inside Radio reported that this has also now been discontinued, meaning that Facebook users can preview Spotify tracks and podcasts, but will once again need to launch Spotify’s app to listen to them in full.
Meanwhile, over at Spotify another senior podcasting executive is leaving the company. Anchor co-founder Michael Mignano, now Spotify’s head of talk, will depart in June. He follows Gimlet boss Lydia Polgreen and head of studios and video Courtney Holt out of the company, in what’s looking like a shakeup of its execs outside music content.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools :: Wyng
Through Music Ally’s internal marketing campaign tracking, we’ve recently discovered an interesting website by the…