Introduction:
Amp, a live radio app from Amazon that competed with Clubhouse, has been discontinued roughly 18 months after its debut. Users of the Amazon Turns Off the Volume on Amp app could play DJ and offer commentary while playing music.
According to a message distributed internally by the organization’s director of digital music, Steve Boom, the choice to discontinue the service “only became clear after months of careful consideration determining the investments Amazon wants to make for the future,” according to Bloomberg.
According to insiders who spoke with TechCrunch, the app, which was released in March 2022, did not experience any substantial growth and had over 700,000 monthly active users in July. In response, Amazon criticized these measurements as being “inaccurate.” Data.ai, an analytics business, reported that Amp had 1.3 million downloads overall.
During the company’s huge layoffs last year, nearly half of Amp’s workers were let go. According to documents viewed by Techcrunch in July, the app also failed to persuade users to sign up for Amazon because that number was only in the single-digit thousands.
Amazon Turns Off the Volume on Amp:
Amazon Turns Off the Volume on Amp [Source of Image: Techcrunch.com]
Amazon tried to capitalize on the pandemic-driven buzz surrounding live audio. At the launch, Amp announced performances by well-known musicians including Nicki Minaj, Pusha T, singer Tinashe, violinist and electronic artist Lindsey Stirling, Travis Barker, Lil Yachty, and Big Boi, as well as popular radio hosts Zach Sang, Kat Corbett, Christian James Hand, and Guy Raz.
In September 2022, the corporation even established a creator fund, allocating “millions of dollars” to reward show creators every month.
However, after the pandemic, users’ interest in live audio apps waned. Last year, both Meta and Spotify chose to divert their attention from real-time audio initiatives and give up. In March, Reddit shut down its live audio platform Reddit Talk.
Even Clubhouse, the firm with A16Z funding that popularized real-time communication, is attempting to increase engagement by providing chat rooms with asynchronous audio communications.
According to Bloomberg, Amazon Music may include some Amp experiences into its fan experiences by trying to learn from the way the live music community interacts with each other.
