Yeah, yeah 2021 is the year of audio – we heard that one already.  But in case you haven’t, here is a rundown of some of the latest developments in the space :).
 
Even NASA is in the game
The Perseverance Rover now on Mars beamed a 60-second audio clip of Martian sounds back to Earth, the first ever recording of sounds from another planet.
 
Spotify ‘Stream On’
In its “Stream On” event on Monday, Spotify rolled out a bunch of new announcements.  Among those are ones aimed at creators:

• Spotify and Anchor, a podcast management system, have partnered with Wordpress to turn written posts into Spotify podcasts;
   
• the Spotify Audience Network is going to help advertisers access more listeners; and
   
• Streaming Ad Insertion provides Megaphone and Anchor podcast creators with data and metrics for podcast advertising.

Clubhouse going global despite iOS snobbery
Clubhouse is growing like gangbusters and it’s not just in the U.S.  This article examines its unique growth trajectory in four other countries:  Japan, Hong Kong, India and Nigeria.  The bottom line is that clubhouse is quickly turning into a global growth phenomenon and is being hampered by the fact that it’s only available on iOS – no Android app yet.
 
Clubhouse copycats abound
Facebook is working on Rooms, Twitter has got Spaces and Mark Cuban is involved with a stealth app, all of which are gunning for Clubhouse’s market.

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