Social media faces no shortage of challenges. The long list of grievances has often landed CEOs in front of congressional hearings, slapped the companies with fines, and forced them to change their operations or policies in one way or another.
Even if not to that extent, we’ve all likely had a complaint about our favorite social media apps. Everyday issues span from lags and bugs to biased algorithms. Social audio shares a lot of the same challenges. And while all social apps should consider things like discoverability, bots, monetization, and privacy, social audio must tackle challenges unique to the realm of audio:
- Moderation: Social audio platforms need to find ways to moderate content effectively, especially when it comes to issues such as hate speech, harassment, and misinformation. This can be particularly challenging for the apps where live conversations take place. Even recordings are more difficult to moderate compared to text. While listening and scanning audio may sound like a no-brainer, apps must uphold their users’ privacy.
- Accessibility: Given the global nature of social media, all apps should provide means of accessibility. For audio platforms, this means providing closed captioning for those with hearing disabilities and translations for those who don’t speak the speaker's language.
- Language: Even if apps provide translations or closed captions, the power of voice is often lost in translation. For a segment built on the notion that the human voice can communicate in ways other forms of media cannot, a text-based or AI-generated solution loses that flavor.
- Technical issues: Social audio relies heavily on technology, so bugs massively affect the user experience. Issues like poor audio quality, dropped connections, and other glitches make it difficult for users to engage in conversations.
- Legal: Social audio platforms must comply with relevant laws and regulations, such as those related to copyright, defamation, and privacy. For example, the app should ensure a user does not upload the music of another artist without their permission.
- Misuse of audio content: Social audio apps or users may wrongfully record conversations without the knowledge or consent of all parties involved. This can lead to the misuse of the audio content for malicious purposes.
- Competition with dominant forms of social media: In the crowded field of social media, social audio faces the uphill challenge of consumer preference for sight-based media. This includes the likes of videos, photos, and text. Among these, audio is the forgotten child, to the point that the majority of people watch videos with the sound off. Of course, if you turn the sound off, social audio loses all meaning. This makes consumption preference the defining battle for social audio.
Is social audio dead? Considering its decline after a once-promising meteoric rise, it’s a fair question. I believe social audio has a lot to offer. But right now, it must go through the same growing pains other technologies and trends have faced.
Still less than four years old, social audio has a lot of room to grow. But with that growth comes great obstacles. As more and more users join a platform, it must scale to those users’ growing needs. And while developments in technology make meeting those needs possible, those solutions must consider privacy and regulations. Time will tell which apps answer the bell and take social audio to where it has the potential to go.
Social Audio Corner is a series where we discuss all things related to the audio segment of social media, from latest developments to use cases and more.