Facebook adds audio hub, expands live rooms, ‘audio Twitter’ app Soundbites

Facebook is expanding its push into live and recorded audio. Its multifaceted approach is designed to offer alternatives to everything from Clubhouse to Spotify and even an audio version of TikTok.

The new “Audio” destination in the Facebook mobile app in the U.S. brings together all of its audio formats including podcasts, its Clubhouse like Live Audio Rooms as well as ‘Soundbites’ offering short-form audio.

In a strange design choice, the audio hub is accessed through Watch, Facebook’s video hub.

The hub will highlight the content from creators that users are following along with personalized recommendations and content from the platform’s most popular audio creators.

Live Audio Rooms are now available to more creators globally. But Facebook’s podcast section is still in the U.S. only for now.

Audio Twitter: Who uses Soundbites?

Think of Soundbites as audio Twitter.

Facebook is touting it as a lightweight means of connection.

Some creators including Lil Huddy, Noah and Miley Cyrus, quarterback Russell Wilson, singer Becky G, comedian Sherry Cola, and Mereba Music are already gathering large followings there.

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.