The Next Big Social Network Trend? Shortform Audio
https://www.theverge.comThis, to multiple founders and investors, is the future of audio: shortform recordings that are social, shareable, and thought-provoking, or, at a bare minimum, make you want to listen and say something.
Multiple startups, including Beams, Quest, and Nowzad’s app Pludo are betting their efforts, and investors’ cash, that there’s business to be had in this user-generated audio. Even the world’s largest social platform sees this as a possibility; Facebook announced Soundbites earlier this year, a forthcoming product also built around shareable, short audio clips. They all see what’s happening on TikTok — masses of people creating viral video clips — and want to repeat that success with just sound. It could be the next viral frontier, and a medium that mints new stars and makes everyone lots of cash, should any of these apps actually take off.