Twitter expanding Spaces to take on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Your next podcast app could be your social media app. Twitter is expanding Twitter Spaces and seemingly will host podcasts, the live Spaces it already has, and more. The Twitter Spaces Twitter account released the news today that Spaces will be getting its own tab inside the app. The new tab “includes podcasts, themed audio stations, and (of course) recorded + live Spaces.”

Testing on the new feature has already started, but no details yet about when the feature will roll out to all users or what other improvements we might see to the Spaces. While the info on the Twitter Spaces Twitter account is next to nothing, Twitter’s senior product manager, Evan Jones, did tell The Verge (opens in new tab) that the audio stations will be tailored to users the more you use them. He describes the upcoming feature “as if it’s like another user recommending you something.”

Twitter’s blog post (opens in new tab) about the news states that “internal research indicates that 45% of people who use Twitter in the U.S. also listen to podcasts monthly.” Could Twitter be the app that creates the secret sauce for discovering new podcasts? As an avid podcast listener myself, I know it’s no easy feat.

Twitter Spaces launched in 2020 and was seen as Twitter’s response to the popular pandemic social media audio platform Clubhouse.

Twitter still dealing with Elon Musk drama

Of course, Twitter has been in the news a lot recently, most recently because Elon Musk stated his intention to end his agreement to buy Twitter (opens in new tab) for over 40 billion dollars.

Twitter’s chairman, Brett Taylor, responded by saying, “The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement.” As such, Twitter and Elon Musk will go to court in Delaware on October 17, 2022, to state their cases.

Moving into a new Space(s)