Facebook is getting into audio.
In a Discord conversation with Casey Newton, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that over the coming months, the social behemoth will be rolling out four new audio-centric features:
- A Clubhouse-style live audio chat room integrated within Facebook Groups and Messenger.
- A feature called ‘Soundbites’ which is like TikTok for audio
- A feature that will let users listen to podcasts within Facebook.
- A Spotify integration which will let users play music through an in-app player.
To support these new features with as much original content as possible, Facebook is also offering audio creators new monetization tools, and Facebook’s official announcement mentions an “Audio Creator Fund.” However, specific details have not been revealed as of now.
At one level, the reasons behind this are obvious: Facebook wants to monetize our ears, not just our eyes. The live audio room format invented by Clubhouse seems to be here to stay. The window seems to be closing for anyone wanting to capitalize on the open nature of the podcast ecosystem, given recent moves by Spotify and Apple.
But when you look closer, there’s a lot more to unpack. How coherently can audio actually co-exist inside the big blue app, juxtaposed with text-based and visual content? Does Facebook have the DNA required to build trust with creators? And what should we make of their increasingly muddled-seeming strategy?
In this essay, we first break down the chances each of these new audio features have of success, and then take a step back to understand Facebook’s vision of where they see themselves in the creator economy, and how they plan to get there.
So let’s dive in!
