Audio Events on LinkedIn will soon be no more.
In an update published this week, LinkedIn announced that it would be combining Audio Events with LinkedIn Live, effectively shutting down the audio-only streaming feature.
According to the update, LinkedIn users can no longer schedule a new Audio Event as of December 2. Audio Events already scheduled before December 31 can continue as planned. Any Audio Event scheduled after that date must be rescheduled by December 15 as Audio Events will be entirely unavailable after this year.
LinkedIn launched Audio Events in 2022. The feature was the business professional-oriented social network's answer to Twitter's Spaces feature or the Clubhouse app. Streaming audio-only platforms became quite popular during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clubhouse, for example, was valued at $1 billion at one point.
However, the audio streaming boom quickly ended as industry trends recalibrated following the end of lockdowns and the release of the COVID-19 vaccines. By 2023, Clubhouse was laying off half of its employees.
LinkedIn's announcement says that the company is simply "unifying" its Audio Events and LinkedIn Live features. However, LinkedIn Live, the platform's live streaming feature, requires that users stream via a third-party service.
LinkedIn Live, the platform's live streaming feature, requires that users utilize a third-party streaming service. With the closure of Audio Events, LinkedIn will also be ending native streaming services on its platform.
