Spanish singer-songwriter Paula Mattheus will reportedly be the first artist to release a single on Clubhouse, a new invitation-only social networking app that revolves around audio conversations in chat rooms.

The app, launched in March last year by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth, burst onto the mainstream in the last week after Tesla CEO Elon Musk hosted an audio-chat with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev about the Gamestop controversy.

As of 1 February, Clubhouse now boasts more than two million users including Serena Williams, Zendaya, Mark Zuckerburg and Lindsay Lohan and is valued at US$1 billion after a recent funding round, giving the startup ‘Unicorn’ status.

Mattheus may be the first artist to take advantage of the burgeoning platform by giving Clubhouse the exclusive premiere of her new single ‘Journey Without Return’ featuring Pol314, days before its standard release on 18 February.

 

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A post shared by Paula Mattheus (@paulamattheusoficial)

The track will debut on Clubhouse at 9 pm on 16 February alongside a live audio chat between Mattheus, Pol314 and journalist Xavi Martinez about the continuous evolution of the music industry and its promotional tools.

During the last few months, actors, musicians and entrepreneurs have offered talks through the voice platform, which recommends chat rooms based on the user’s interests. Each room has moderators, speakers, and listeners.

The app is currently in beta, though in a recent blog post, the founders announced that their 2021 goal is to “open up Clubhouse to the whole world”.

The founders have also pledged to invest in creators, revealing that over the next few months Clubhouse will launch the first tests to allow creators to get paid directly through features like tipping, tickets or subscriptions.

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Social network Twitter, known primarily for its 140-character microblogging platform, today announced a major expansion of its live video offering, signing live-streaming content deals with Live Nation and 15 other news, sport and entertainment partners.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Twitter, which is estimated to have close to 700 million users and turned over US$548m in Q1 2017, says the deal with Live Nation will see the world’s largest promoter “deliver select Live Nation concerts and original content exclusively on Twitter”.

Other content partners include news outlets Bloomberg and BuzzFeed News, broadcaster Viacom and sports leagues MLB (baseball), WNBA (basketball) and PGA Tour (golf).

The partnerships, announced at today’s Digital Content NewFronts conference, are, says Twitter, part of a concerted effort to grow the service’s “premium video” offering. “People have always come to Twitter to see and talk about what’s happening,” reads a statement. “Over the last four years, we’ve brought users video content around the things they’re already discussing on the platform, working with the world’s top TV networks, sports leagues, publishing houses and magazines and professional news outlets.

“In 2016, we started building on this to bring live-streaming video to Twitter to create a one-screen experience for great live content and the conversation around it. Brands align with all of this content to reach engaged audiences at scale.”

“Fans around the world will be able to experience concerts live on the same platform where they talk about what’s happening in music”

Since launching its live video service in Q4 2016, Twitter has streamed more than 800 hours of “premium”, or professionally produced, video content to an audience of 45m viewers.

According to Josh Contine of TechCrunch, who is attending NewFronts, the Live Nation/Twitter concert series will kick off Saturday 13 May with a show by Zac Brown Band (pictured). Future performers include Train, Portugal the Man, Marian Hill and August Alsina.

“Music has always been one of the most tweeted-about topics on the platform, and now fans around the world will be able to experience concerts live on the same platform where they talk about what’s happening in music,” says Live Nation chief strategy officer Jordan Zachary.

In the video space, Twitter (and subsidiary Periscope – it of accidentally-live-streaming-The Cure fame) is once again competing with Facebook, which is similarly pushing its live-streaming offering, Facebook Live. Facebook Live recently signed a deal to broadcast 22 Major League Soccer matches this year, raising speculation a music partner could soon follow suit.

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Building on the existing partnership between the two brands, Live Nation has begun selling concert tickets on Snapchat in the US.

As discovered by Digiday, Live Nation – which in July signed a deal to package footage from four of its European festivals as ‘Live Stories’ on the social video-sharing app, which has over 150 million active users – over the weekend launched a Snapchat ad campaign for Grande’s upcoming North American Dangerous Woman tour.

The adverts, which appear for users browsing Snapchat’s sponsored Discover channel, link to a Ticketmaster page to buy tickets for the Little Mix-supported tour, which begins on 2 February at the 18,422-cap. Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.

IQ reported in May that movie ticketing platform Fandango was, similarly, selling tickets for superhero blockbuster X-Men: Apocalypse within the app. AEG Live also has a multi-year agreement with Snapchat to promote its festivals, although it has yet to introduce in-app ticket sales.

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