Social Audio Monetization and Clubhouse
March 30th, 2021
I co-moderate an one hour room about marketing news on Clubhouse. This is the first week where I will cover some of the topics partially - which is exclusively about marketing and digital trends. My co-host is Brendan Gahan - who is a partner & Chief Social Officer at Mekanism.
What’s the future of monetization for social audio? Brendan moderated a panel at VidCon about the monetization of social audio last week that included panelists like Sterling Proffer (who is around 257,000 followers on Clubhouse). Brendan had this to say at our marketing room:
This medium is here to stay. This means monetiziation models will be a thing. Everyone was in agreement of how monetization models will play out. People are sick of ads.
Kiara Aguillon was also a panelist on the same topic. She works in influencer marketing and is quickly becoming the leading influencer marketing expert on Clubhouse with 40,000 followers. Kiara said that there was consensus on the VidCon panel that monetization should ideally be, “Non-interruptive but complementary.”
Shortly after someone brought up Shaan Puri’s tweet storm about Clubhouse. I recalled seeing it but ignored it because it seem to be a self indulgent piece of writing with poor grammar. I’ll go through some of what was tweeted and add my thoughts.
The focus on Elon Musk tells me something. Shaan Puri has no idea how active users actually use Clubhouse. Most of the active users were annoyed with Elon Musk leading to the app crashing. These active users were happy just to interact with their friends. Likewise, the viewing experience of Elon Musk on Clubhouse was actually better on Youtube (which was not crashing). This makes question whether or Shaan was even there while this was happening. Or was he just pontificating about something he heard second hand?
The fact that "Good Time Show" and "Shoot Your Shot- NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys" is being mentioned as content gold is signals something different. It simply signals that Shaan follows tech twitter. The primary value of Clubhouse is conversations and building genuine relationships with new people. Neither of which Shaan has shown any indication of understanding based off his references when it comes to Clubhouse.
Back onto the topic of monetization for social audio. I think the option that makes the most sense is tipping and % revenue share from tips. Asia has largely lead the way in tech trends - especially when it comes to live streaming video. A market that is largely dominated by tips and ads.
For those of interested in joining in the conversation live next Monday, feel to contact me and I’ll get you an invite.
Hi Kenneth. My agency is working through this evolving landscape right now as well (specifically around creating great audio ads). I'd love to check this one out.