The year 2020 has become, now there is no doubt, the great year of podcasting, even though some experts such as Nick Hilton have said - not without some sarcasm and a pandemic metaphor - that "2020 will be, in many ways, a false positive for the viability of podcasting ”.
The pandemic changed everything, and the
podcasting
industry
is no exception.
In this case, the change was favorable or, at least, hopeful.
So much so that it could be set as a new milestone, accompanying 2004 - the date on which the term
podcasting
was coined
and RSS appeared - and 2014 - the year in which the mass podcast
Serial was released
-.
The movement at the end of 2020 with the definitive and powerful entry of Amazon into the world of audio can be understood as the natural evolution and outcome of that first and final gesture of Spotify in 2019 when it bought, among others, Gimlet Media:
if Spotify inaugurated the audio platformization, Amazon has verified the auditing of the platforms
.
Jaume Ripoll, co-founder and editorial director of Filmin, explained that the VOD platform market will experience a scenario of fusion, specialization and disappearance in the coming years.
We can say something similar about the audio market although, of course, we are still decades behind, fundamentally focused on the first phase: fusion.
The purchase of the Wondery platform by Amazon Music for 300 million dollars means that the
podcasting
market
will stop - even temporarily - from being tending to monopolization, so that there are some more players in the market.
Few more.
In other words: Spotify has come up with a tough (and rich) competitor.
Perhaps the question we must ask ourselves now is:
in its podcasting strategy, will Amazon try to be more like Amazon Prime Video or the production and distribution routines of the books and objects it sells?
Nick Nilton states in his post on Medium (
Podcasting in 2020: the audit
) that currently “the content available greatly exceeds the interest available”;
so
content discovery and curation will be cornerstones of the
podcast's
future
.
The atomization of platforms would not be a problem if all of them did not want, in addition, to make exclusive content.
In this way, how can an
independent
podcaster be
known
if the algorithm and editorial decision of the platform only rewards certain content that benefits them?
The user experience is likely to resemble VOD platforms more and more and, while this represents the final knock of the format, it also brings some disappointment for some: what made
podcasts
special
- their multi-distribution, their generosity among professionals , their tribality- gradually disappear.
We must not forget that
podcasting was
born with a huge base of independent and non-professional podcasters, something that did not happen with television, whose main actors were already large media companies.
A new sonic creature: Clubhouse
The
podcasts
should remain an effective and credible vehicle for voices and innovative formats, independent, minority or niches very small.
One of the great challenges we face will be to fight against the tsunami of signings and professionalization of an industry that, in its exclusivist strategy, leaves little room for these other voices.
And this is where, perhaps,
Clubhouse
makes sense
, the new application based solely on audio, voice, a kind of evolution and extension of podcasting with audience participation, a sound Twitch, a Discord mixed with Linkedin.
Perhaps the ultimate social network for
podcasters
.
Perhaps part of the mystery that brings together Clubhouse has to do with its exclusive status: an audio social network enjoyed by only a few thousand privileged influencers, related to Silicon Valley, some Hollywood stars (
Drake, Tiffany Haddish , Jared Leto, Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock or Oprah
, among others) and which can only be accessed by invitation.
A sort of select and virtual sound club in whose rooms -
rooms,
as the meeting spaces are called, similar to Twitch channels - the most fascinating and interesting conversations of the moment take place.
"Clubhouse is a new kind of voice-based network. When you open the app, you can see 'rooms' full of people talking, all open so you can come in and out, exploring different conversations. You enter each room as a member of the audience, but if you want to speak, just raise your hand and the speakers can choose to invite you. Or you can create your own room.
It is a place to meet friends and new people from all over the world, to tell stories, ask questions, discuss , learn and have impromptu conversations on thousands of different topics
, "explain its creators on the Clubhouse blog. Those creators are
Paul Davison and Rohan Seth
. The former is a former Google engineer, the latter a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who already In 2021, it created Highlight, an application that allowed people to share locations and that it closed in 2016.
The application was born - and it is not by chance - in 2020, a year marked by the pandemic and by the emergence of audio, voice, as a tool and vehicle for the new digital era.
Marc Andreessen, a well-known Silicon Valley investor, was one of the founders of this network that was born as a virtual and sound space in which different gurus exchanged their opinions about how to react after the pandemic, how to rebuild the American dream.
Andreessen Horowitz, the US private equity firm, has invested $ 12 million, sparking a fever for new contributions in Silicon Valley.
Horowitz himself is one of the first contacts you can follow once you download the application and someone “nominates” you to use it.
Horowitz opened a room to share his foolproof barbecue techniques and his favorite restaurants.
One of the contributions of Clubhouse is that you can enter the rooms just to listen and participate only if you have something to say.
Moderation, transparency and hyperspecialization
This new fashion app places the voice at the center, once again, increasing the phenomenon of the audification era that is getting wider and wider:
“Clubhouse is only about voice and we believe that voice is a very special medium.
Without the camera on, you don't have to worry about eye contact, what you're wearing, or where you are.
You can talk in the Clubhouse while folding clothes, nursing, traveling, working on your couch in the basement, or going for a run.
Instead of typing something and hitting 'Submit', you are engaged in a back and forth dialogue with others.
The intonation, inflection, and emotion conveyed through your voice allow you to pick up on nuances and form uniquely human connections with others.
You can still have difficult conversations, but with your voice there is often the ability to generate more empathy.
This is what attracted us to the medium, ”its founders explain on the blog.
And the truth is that the close, credible and authentic qualities of radio and
podcasts
evolve in this new application that, like Twitch, proposes hyperspecialization, since there are rooms dedicated to any field of interest.
There is also something to do with the comfort of the voice, with the caress of the voice: “We have seen people organize book clubs, fireside chats, passionate debates and comedy shows.
When people have fallen asleep late at night, others in the room have 'tucked in' them, silently sending them back to the audience to silence their microphone, ”Davison and Seth explain in the Clubhouse welcome text.
Stephanie Korey, co-founder of Away.
There are two main reasons why the application is not yet open: first, its founders believe that it is important that "communities grow slowly, rather than multiplying the user base tenfold overnight."
This,
in a context of constant acceleration, represents a specific way of doing things and understanding audio as a slow but safe vehicle.
In addition, that slow pace "helps ensure that things don't break, keeps the makeup of the community diverse, and allows us to adjust the product as it grows
.
"
Second, the Clubhouse is still a small team, made up of two people - Davison and Seth themselves - who are currently in charge of scaling the infrastructure, developing features, gathering product feedback, and overall construction of the company. company.
The Clubhouse algorithm is based on both the list of addresses, the interests that we choose when opening the application and it is even possible to link to our Twitter or Instagram accounts.
From there, rooms related to music, cinema, culture, race, technology and beauty arise.
One of the most fascinating things about Clubhouse is the possibility of having celebrities chatting with you, like at a round table.
Two are the most immediate challenges of the platform: moderation and monetization.
There are two fundamental rules in the application that remind you before entering any room: “be nice and courteous, treat everyone with respect, discussions are healthy and natural, but kindness is always a requirement” and “no speeches are allowed hate or bullying: degrading comments based on race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, gender or identity will not be tolerated ”.
With a small community it is easy to control but we do not know what will happen when there are millions of users.
In any case, the moral position of Clubhouse, at least for the moment, seems to want to mark distances with other applications such as Twitter or Facebook where freedom of expression prevails.
Clubhouse and journalism
In July 2020, just three months after its exclusive launch, Clubhouse experienced its first controversy.
Vice magazine published part of the audio of a conversation that took place in one of the Clubhouse rooms between different Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, after Taylor Lawrenz, a reporter for The New York Times, criticized in an article Stephanie Korey, CEO of Away, a company that, according to the journalist, warned its employees not to take vacations, not talk to each other and work longer hours than stipulated.
An article in The Verge also investigated Away's practices.
The controversy arose then: can a conversation of an exclusive application like Clubhouse become news?
Should the rooms in this app be reliable sources for the media?
Will the tech elite at Clubhouse keep this sincerity when the app opens up to everyone?
Is it forbidden to record all conversations?
Mauricio Cabrera explains in his newsletter specialized in media and technology called The Muffin that there are a series of variants that we must consider at the intersection between journalism and Clubhouse: first, strengthening the hostile environment against journalism, and not only from government power -which is not yet present in the Clubhouse-, but also from the corporate power;
proliferation of closed rooms due to the need to have more control over who accesses the conversations;
media capitalizing on any opportunity to expose what any celebrity, entrepreneur, government or public figure of all kinds says there and, finally, given the need to cover the conversations in Clubhouse, the media will have to dedicate resources to monitor what let it happen there.
And, perhaps, what ends up being a perfect virtual audio circle: "certain conversations in the Clubhouse will be broadcast through conventional radio and will become a podcast."
The quality of the audio, by the way, is still not very remarkable and English, of course, is the language that reigns in most rooms.
Clubhouse will allow you to continue developing personal or company brands, create encounters with celebrities from the technological world of work, becoming a place where transparency prevails, a space in which to combat fake-news, rooms in which to delve into details without anonymous accounts
(one which, by the way, was imposed as an app policy when a couple of users pretended to be Tim Cook and Elon Musk).
Clubhouse can also serve as a kind of sound reedit, that is, forums in which to comment from a television series with its creators to an
investigative
podcast
with a journalist, through the release of a disc with a private meeting between the singer and a select group of fans, even halls filled
with Harry Potter
fandom
.
The possibilities are endless and the next step would be to find out how brands can make this application their own: maybe famous 'clubhousers' talking about the launch of a new cosmetic product in a room dedicated to beauty?
The presentation of a new perfumery product with the voice of its ambassador?
Or just a few beers toasting and being consumed in the middle of an exciting chat?
The voice will continue to reign in this new decade of the 21st century and Clubhouse is one of its new homes
.