Micro-blogging website Twitter has rolled out the ‘podcast’ feature to a test version of its audio chat room Spaces. The social media platform has recently added many new features like the ‘ CoTweets‘ and is now entering a space dominated by Spotify Technology and Apple Inc.
good news, today we’re starting to test a new Spaces Tab
even better news, it includes podcasts, themed audio stations, and (of course) recorded + live Spaces pic.twitter.com/TGS2aVsUI1
— Spaces (@TwitterSpaces) August 25, 2022
Twitter in its blog post informed on Thursday that the feature would be available to a random group of English-speaking users who can tune in to full episodes through curated playlists based on their interests. The new feature will be integrated into Twitter spaces.
“We know that some discussions need more than 280 characters, and bringing people closer to the ideas, content, and creators they know and love is core to Twitter no matter where the conversations take place,” the company said in a blog post. “Integrating podcasts into Spaces, where audio conversations happen on Twitter, is another way we’re continuing to invest in audio creators. To do this in a simple and intuitive way that allows listeners to simply hit play and go, we started with a redesigned audio experience in the Spaces Tab,” the company added further.
Twitter introduced the ‘Spaces’ feature back in 2020 following the success of the then newly launched social audio chat app Clubhouse during the pandemic.
The podcast fever
Since the inception of podcasts, the field has grown slowly and steadily, eventually becoming a major trend in social media production with more creators establishing themselves in the industry. Social media influencers creating content in this genre are also becoming more popular.
Twitter’s internal research indicates that 45 per cent of people who use the platform in the US also listen to podcasts monthly. YouTube has also recently launched a dedicated page for podcasts.
At the same time, the Indian podcast market is at a rapid rate, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. The country now has the third-largest listener base globally, just behind the US and China. According to a PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook study, the number of podcast listeners will rise to 17.61 million by 2023.
