Remember in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, when live audio became ubiquitous? The trend was popularized by the brief viral phenomenon Clubhouse, after which virtually every other online site adopted the feature for themselves.
Since then, live audio has essentially become a footnote to a bizarre period when we were all stuck at home with nothing to do, and listening to hours-long broadcasts of strangers talking to each other was considered fun. LinkedIn, which came late to the live audio party in 2022, has decided to discontinue its standalone live audio events.
In an update, the firm said that it will no longer support native audio events starting next month. Users will be unable to create new events as of December 2, and previously scheduled events will no longer function after December 31.
Instead, the business is “bringing together” audio events via its live-streaming product, LinkedIn Live. However, LinkedIn Live requires authors to build live streams using third-party technologies. So, while audio-only broadcasts will be able to exist on LinkedIn, they will require a few additional procedures.
LinkedIn is not the only corporation that has shifted its strategy toward live audio. Reddit, Facebook, Spotify, and Amazon all discontinued their pandemic-era live audio products.
Even Clubhouse (which, yes, still exists) moved away from the format last year. Despite a few high-profile technical difficulties, the functionality remains popular on X.