It’s not even a year since it launched, and yet the Facebook podcast is shutting down from next month…
Less than a year after launch, Facebook is shutting down its podcast platform. If you use podcasts in your content marketing strategy, you’ve certainly noticed that it hasn’t been possible to upload new shows to the service since the beginning of May, and This feature will be completely closed on June 3.
A rapid race towards podcasting
In June 2021, Facebook launched its Live Audio and Podcasts service, following the social audio platform craze inspired by the live audio app, Clubhouse. It was worth $4 billion last year and every platform from Facebook to Twitter to Telegram wanted to copy its product.
Meanwhile, while Amazon.com Inc. signed major audio deals, Spotify Technology SA had a market value of more than $50 billion a year ago, more than double what it is today.
Facebook’s move to Audio seemed inevitable if the platform wanted to stay afloat in this crazy race and not outdo many of its competitors.
podcast on facebook
In concrete terms, presenters can link their show’s RSS feeds to the social network. It automatically generates posts on the newsfeed for all episodes published and which appear on the “Podcasts” tab.
With the ability to share their shows via Facebook, podcasters can decide whether or not to enable listener-generated clips that are up to a minute long.
With podcasts, Facebook is clearly banking on the fact that podcasters are already using the platform to foster conversations with their listeners and promote their shows. The purpose of publishing directly to the platform was to make it easier to achieve these goals, while giving users a reason to never leave the app…
But everything has changed!
Facebook is reevaluating podcasts
As of early May, Facebook no longer allows you to download new audio broadcasts. This change was made due to the re-evaluation of Facebook Podcasts. At the same time, the company is discontinuing Soundbites and Audio Hub, integrating its Live Audio Rooms feature into the Facebook Live package.
Facebook spokeswoman Adelaide Coronado explained:
“After a year of learning and interacting with an audio-first experience, we’ve decided to simplify our audio toolset on Facebook.”
It is clear that the enthusiasm towards audio is not the same as it was in childhood. For example, Spotify reduced the number of special programs it had contracts with. Clubhouse also lost market relevance over the months, followed by Facebook.
In addition to focusing more on video, Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) is thus changing its strategy by emphasizing other new trends, notablyThe introduction of the metaverse and e-commerce. It’s actually worth remembering that the company changed its name to Meta to emphasize its interest in building the Metaverse.
short video Reels are also more advanced, especially on Instagram, to compete with Tik Tok. This type of content represents More than 20% of users’ time is spent on Instagram.
As such, Facebook will certainly stop offering podcasts on the platform from next month, but other interesting features will be highlighted for it to continue contributing and increasing visibility and engagement on the social network.
And you, what do you think of this ad? Is this good or bad news? Do you use podcasts in your marketing strategy? Feel free to share your experience in the comments.