Facebook loses interest in its foray into podcasting

(Bloomberg) Facebook's interest in podcasts is disappearing, just a year after it started.

Last April, during an attractive market for audio, Facebook launched Live Audio Rooms, short stories called Soundbites and podcasts for users in the United States. The company signed agreements with creators and sponsored one of the largest American conferences in the industry: Podcast Movements. Facebook product managers even appeared on the long-running industry show “New Media Show” to encourage podcasters to join the platform.

But today, the company emphasizes other initiatives in conversations with podcast partners, including events in the metaverse and online shopping, according to industry executives working with the platform. They asked not to be identified because their conversations with Facebook have not been made public.

Facebook's lower interest in podcasts is a disappointment to some in the growing industry because the scale of its platform offers a large potential audience and, with it, the possibility of earning more advertising revenue. Instead, parent company Meta Platforms Inc. is turning its attention to the metaverse and short video projects amid growing competition and a precipitous drop in its share price.

A Facebook spokesman said the company is still working on podcasts even while accelerating work on priority features such as Reels and Feed. The company is seeing a good compromise with its audio products, according to the spokesman, who refused to provide details.

Audiomania

Facebook's move towards audio, somehow, felt inevitable. It did so during a time of audiomania last year, when the live audio platform Clubhouse was valued at $4 billion and every tech company wanted to copy its product. Spotify Technology SA had a market value of more than $50 billion a year ago, twice what it is now, and Amazon.com Inc. was signing major audio deals. So when Facebook said it was introducing audio experiences, no one was completely surprised.

To enter the space, the company also explored starting a training program to attract creators to the platform. Steph Colbourn, founder and CEO of Editaudio, said that a group working with Facebook came up with the idea of paying her to train approximately 15 podcasters from various backgrounds on how to create their programs and use the platform, but the idea was never realized.

Then, after sponsoring Podcast Movement in August, Facebook did not sponsor its sequel in March and did not send a single person to attend, according to the list of attendees at the event.

At the same time, some initial Live Audio Rooms partners no longer organize conversations and their agreements were not renewed. For example, civil rights activist DeRay McKesson signed an initial six-episode agreement, which he says went well. But his contract hasn't been renewed.

New Priorities

In another sign of changing priorities, a leading Facebook podcast product manager, Irena Lam, appears to have transitioned to a music-oriented role, according to LinkedIn page.

But even Facebook's limited podcasting efforts have been a source of growth for some content providers. TYT Network, which produces political programming, said that Facebook is its second most popular audio platform after Apple Podcasts. The network added podcast content to Facebook in September, and since then, the platform has contributed “hundreds of thousands of additional monthly listens,” according to marketing director Praveen Singh. That's twice the audience TYT gets on Spotify, he said.

Original Note:

Facebook Is Pulling Back From Its Foray Into Podcasting

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.