Mashable: Reddit is secretly exploring a Clubhouse-like voice chat feature . “Reddit is quietly exploring a new feature that would enable moderator-run voice chats, possibly similar to Clubhouse, according to a source familiar with the company’s plan. Development is still in the early stages, and was described as confidential.”
ZDNet: Bad broadband, no problem: Google’s open-source speech codec works on even low-quality networks. “In a bid to put an end to the all-too-familiar choppy, robotic voice calls that come with low bandwidth, Google is open-sourcing Lyra, a new audio codec that taps machine learning to produce high-quality calls even when faced with a dodgy internet connection.”
NASA: Data Turned Into Sounds of Stars, Galaxies, Black Holes. “This latest installment from our data sonification series features three diverse cosmic scenes. In each, astronomical data collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes are converted into sounds. Data sonification maps the data from these space-based telescopes into a form that users can hear instead of only see, embodying the data in a new form without changing the original content.”
CNET: LinkedIn is ‘doing early tests’ to build a Clubhouse rival. “LinkedIn is throwing its hat into the live audio ring. The professional networking platform is conducting ‘early tests’ to create an audio experience that’s connected to your professional identity, the company said Tuesday, in a bid to stake out a place in the fast-growing social audio category made popular by Clubhouse.”
NBC News: Spotify jumps into social audio, acquires sports-focused live audio app. “Spotify said Tuesday it has acquired the company behind the live audio app Locker Room, giving the music and podcast platform a new foothold in a space that has seen a surge of interest following the rise of the app Clubhouse.”
Business of Fashion: Ted Baker Becomes First Fashion Brand With a ‘Club’ on Clubhouse. “The British label is launching a branded-content series on the audio-only platform hosted by Abraxas Higgins, an active Clubhouse user with 370,000 followers on the app. Ted Baker has six talks scheduled with Higgins, where the hour-long conversations will discuss the intersection of British culture and fashion. Guests like artists Greta Bellamacina and Kojey Radical, both of whom appeared in Ted Baker’s most recent campaign, will participate in the discussions.
Tubefilter: Clubhouse Launches ‘Creator First’ Accelerator Program, Offering Monetization, Audience Growth, More. “Clubhouse, the trendy and oft-copied audio app that fosters discussions on myriad subjects in virtual rooms, and which is now valued at a reported $1 billion, has announced a slew of updates on its first anniversary. First, the company tweeted yesterday that it is launching an accelerator program for native creators called Clubhouse Creator First.”
Jeremiah Owyang: 20 Ways Businesses Will Engage Social Audio. “The tech crowd abuzz with the promise of a new, real-time engagement platform, influencers gathering en masse to share content, and the ever-so-slight opening of the proverbial ‘exclusive access door’ to the public for a peek inside the magic. Except this time around, consumers and the press are much more keen to the potential data risks and platform flaws.”
The Verge: Here’s a first look at Mark Cuban’s podcasting platform Fireside. “Broadly, the app is best described as a hybrid between Spotify’s Anchor software and Clubhouse. Although it prioritizes live conversation, like Clubhouse, it tries to make off-the-cuff conversations sound more professional. Intro music welcomes people into a room, for example, which is a nice touch, but it doesn’t exactly translate like it does during an edited podcast.”
Daily Nous: How to Find Philosophy Events on Clubhouse. “Some more philosophers are finding their way onto Clubhouse (previously), and a few philosophy events open to anyone on Clubhouse are taking place. But how can you find them? And if you’re hosting or taking part in an event, how can you let other philosophers know about it? The search tool on the app is not especially useful. Searching for ‘philosophy’ yields a list of people who have ‘philosophy’ in their handles or a bunch of clubs possibly related to philosophy, but probably not all the ones that actuall are, nor in any particular order. You can’t search for specific events.”
TechCrunch: Cappuccino lets you share short, intimate audio stories with your friends. “The app lets you create groups with your friends or your families. Members of the group can record a short audio message — a bean, as the startup calls it. They talk about what’s on their mind for a couple of minutes. The next morning, group members receive a notification saying that your morning cappuccino has been brewed.”
Ars Technica: Clubhouse’s security and privacy lag behind its explosive growth. “In recent months, the audio-based social media app Clubhouse has emerged as Silicon Valley’s latest disruptive darling. The format feels familiar: part Twitter, part Facebook Live, part talking on the phone. But as Clubhouse continues to expand, its security and privacy failings have come under increased scrutiny—and left the company scrambling to correct problems and manage expectations.”
New York Times: The Era of Audio Creators Has Arrived. “Audio creators are a new kind of influencer, born of the meteoric rise of the audio-only chat app Clubhouse. Together, they are pulling in millions of weekly listeners and building online followings. Now, with Clubhouse booming and other social apps, like Twitter, taking cues from its success, they are banding together and working with big brands. Audio Collective is one outgrowth of the audio boom.”
Mashable: Listen to deepfake Gucci Mane read classic literature. “Mark Twain once said that the mark of a classic is that everyone wants to have read it but not actually read it. It makes sense: Classics must provide some artistic or cultural value to be considered ‘classic’ — but they’re just so boring. MSCHF just made the Western canon more exciting with Project Gucciberg. It’s Project Gutenberg (a collection of public domain Western literature) meets the rapper Gucci Mane. Using Artificial Intelligence, MSCHF recreated his voice to read classics from Pride and Prejudice to Don Quixote.” And Little Women. I think you might need headphones to appreciate this completely.
Michigan Radio: Introducing Minutes, a new tool to keep track of local government in Michigan. “We’ve been working on this project for more than a year, with funding from the Google News Initiative. And what we’ve built is a program that can search for and download content from the videos of public meetings from dozens of cities and counties from every corner of Michigan…. One way we’re making these meetings more public is by setting up new podcasts feeds, so you can subscribe and listen to the meetings for your city.”
