Meta is clearly spoojed by Bluesky, and they are making important shifts to adjust. Meanwhile, podcasters have embraced video and YouTube is currently the largest podcast platform. Threads is doing its best to adjust on the fly, and LinkedIn is abandoning a failed audio experiment.
Interest week all around! Read this week’s news below.
1. Meta and Bluesky are racing to edge out X, YouTube
Bluesky has definitely had some growing pains, but Meta is evolving Threads to compete with the long-favored Twitter replacement. Is Bluesky they still a threat? It’s likely.
Threads, meanwhile, announced Wednesday it added custom feeds, allowing users to switch between their main feed and special feeds they can build around their topics of interest, echoing Bluesky’s encouragement for users to create their own feeds and subscribe to other users’ feeds.
Should be interesting to watch this play out!
2. YouTube is passing everyone else in the podcast market
Yes, that’s right. Even Spotify and Apple cannot beat YouTube anymore. It seems like an odd fit and quite a shift from a few years ago, but there are several reasons for the market preference. YouTube commanded 31% of the podcast market, with Spotify at 27% and Apple at 15%.
But why the video preference? Turns out it’s Gen Z.
What’s driving podcast fans to YouTube, rather than just listening to their favorite shows? Gen Z-ers might offer some insight here. Almost half (49%) of Gen Z podcast fans, Edison found, said video provides “better understanding” of topics by offering context via facial expressions and gestures, while another 45% said they “feel more connected” to podcasters via video.
3. LinkedIn rolls its audio-only streaming into Lives
This may seem like a simple shift, but it’s more indicative than anything. A few years ago, Clubhouse was the new audio-only app, and forced other platforms to accommodate audio-only options like Twitter Spaces. The idea was that it would signal a shift to audience connection, and no platform wanted to miss that boat. It never happened, though, and now the audio-only features are superfluous.
“We are updating our live event creation experience, bringing together our Audio Events and LinkedIn Live into a single entrypoint. From December 2, 2024, the creation of native Audio Events will no longer be available. If you have an Audio Event scheduled before December 31, 2024, you can host it as usual. If you have an Audio Event scheduled after that date, you must create a new event through LinkedIn Live by December 15, 2024, as the original event will be removed.”
4. Threads is testing a “following” feed
Facebook and Instagram long ago abandoned chronological “Following” feeds, allowing users to only see content from those they are connected to on the platform. Meta is trying something different with Threads, however.
Both X and Bluesky offer the following feed as a default, which makes sense for a real-time environment.
5. You’ll soon be able to rest your Instagram preferences
Instagram’s business centers around them serving you content they think you want. However, what happens if you start getting the wrong content? How do you change it? They’re finally offering a solution.
In just a few taps, you’ll be able to clear your recommended content across Explore, Reels and Feed and start fresh.
Your recommendations will start to personalize again over time, showing new content based on the content and accounts you interact with. When resetting, you’ll also have the option to review the accounts you’re following and unfollow any that share content you no longer want to see.
