NEW DELHI: In an attempt to make its presence felt in the non-musical audio market, Swedish audio streamer Spotify has acquired Betty Labs, the company behind sports-focused social audio app Locker Room. With this acquisition, Spotify aims to pose competition in the live audio sector, which has been heating up since the arrival of Clubhouse. 

The popularity of live audio has gained steam during the pandemic months, with Clubhouse – which offers broadcasts, talks, and conversations between internet users – being the clear market leader. Betty Labs also specialises in this niche, and in 2018, it launched Locker Room, which hosts live audio exchanges about sports and watch parties. One of Betty Labs' investors was GV, the private equity arm of Google parent company Alphabet. 

In a recent statement, Spotify revealed that it is planning to develop Locker Room into a platform that will be open to a wider range of creators and fans. 

It was in February that Spotify initially expressed its ambitions to expand its market to the non-musical audio business. According to reports, the company has already poured hundreds of millions of dollars to build an integrated podcast that could offer an advertising platform and exclusive content. 

Meanwhile, social media giant Facebook is developing a platform very similar to Clubhouse, while Twitter is testing a live audio app Spaces, set to publicly launch by April. LinkedIn is also gearing up with the beta testing of the new audio chat feature soon.

"We're doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity. We're looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community," the professional networking app said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Clubhouse is currently available on Apple App Store and has been downloaded more than eight million times. The company is currently working to create an Android version of the app.