Spotify Inc announced that it has purchased Betty Labs, the company
behind sports-focused social audio app Locker Room, to accelerate its
move into live audio.
New voice-based platforms, including invite-only social app
Clubhouse, have seen rapid growth in recent months during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Locker Room, launched in October 2020,
became a popular spot for sports fans to chat and hold watch parties.
The music-streaming service said in the coming months it would
“evolve and expand” Locker Room to offer sports, music, and cultural
programming as well as live discussions with professional athletes,
musicians and other personalities.
“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,” said
Gustav Söderström, Chief Research & Development Officer at
Spotify.
Spotify did not disclose the cost of the acquisition. Betty Labs was
initially backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners and later by GV,
Alphabet Inc’s venture capital arm, and Precursor Ventures. Last
October, Betty Labs raised $9.3 million in seed funding led by GV.
“We are excited to join forces with Spotify and continue building the
future of audio - we’ll invest more in our product, open the experience
to Spotify’s audience, diversify our content offerings, and continue
expanding the community we’ve built,” said Betty Labs founder and
CEO Howard Akumiah.
Spotify has also been making a push into podcasting, and has spent
hundreds of millions of dollars to boost its podcast range and debuted
a podcast advertising marketplace.

Screenshots shared by a Twitter user last week showed Spotify was
surveying some users about how often they used Clubhouse. Twitter
Inc is also testing a live audio app Spaces, which it plans to publicly
launch by April, and Facebook Inc is reportedly dabbling with its own
live audio offering.
Source- Reuters
Country- U.S
# Spotify # Betty