LinkedIn to Discontinue ‘Audio Events’ Feature
LinkedIn, the professional networking platform, has announced plans to shut down its audio-streaming feature, Audio Events. The service will be integrated into LinkedIn Live, effectively ending standalone audio streaming on the platform, Mashable reports.
Transition Timeline and Details
Starting December 2, users will no longer be able to schedule new Audio Events. However, events scheduled before this date will proceed as planned until December 31. LinkedIn has advised users to reschedule any existing events by December 15, as the feature will be fully discontinued by the end of the year.
Launched in 2022, Audio Events was LinkedIn's attempt to rival platforms like Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse, which gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clubhouse, at its peak, achieved a market valuation of $1 billion. However, with the easing of lockdowns and widespread vaccination, interest in audio-streaming platforms has waned. By 2023, Clubhouse was forced to lay off half of its workforce.
Unified Streaming Services
LinkedIn stated that Audio Events will now be folded into LinkedIn Live, which requires third-party streaming services to operate. With this change, LinkedIn is also ending its native streaming services, leaving LinkedIn Live as the platform's sole live-streaming option going forward.
